Life From Scratch

Digging Razor Clams + a recipe

2017-01-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

This article explains how to dig razor clams and how to clean razor clams. I've also included a recipe for our favorite way to eat them, fried!

Razor clams are one of those foods that is so delicious it makes you unable to do anything but mumble about how delicious they are and eat until you explode or the clams run out.
They can a bit of work to dig but trust me, you will not regret a single second of the time you spend out on the beach digging razor clams. The beach is beautiful and your collecting delicious nutritious food. What could possibly be a better use of your time?

Washington state regulations

This information may or may not be accurate for another state and could become outdated for Washington, make sure to check with your fish and game department for local current regulations.

Open beaches

First things first, you need to make sure there are open beaches and check to see when there are tides. You will be allowed to harvest in either the morning or evening. If it’s an evening tide you can’t start digging until after twelve. You’ll want to be there an hour or two before low tide. The razor clams are easiest to find while the tide is going out. You can pick up a tide book locally.

Harvesting

You can dig razor clams by hand, with a clam gun or with a clam shovel. Each person must have their own container for clams and you have to keep the first 15 clams you dig. You can share digging equipment and help each other but everyone has to be actively involved in the process.

Licensing

Anyone older than 15 has to buy a license. You can a buy a year long- that lasts from April to March- or a three day license. The year long is only a few dollars more than the three day so it may be worth it for you to buy the year long.

Equipment for Digging Razor clams

Rubber boots or wadders, you’re going to get wet and sandy so come prepared and wear cloths to stay as dry and warm as possible.

Clam guns
The best kind of guns have suction holes on the handles; it makes them easier to work with (especially if you have small hands like I do) and you can get a better seal with them. I've seen clam guns made from metal or PVC; the material they are made out of doesn't actually seem to impact how well they work.
Clam shovels
Mesh bag
You can use a plastic bag, or a bucket but a mesh bag is the best way to go. They usually have a clip so you can attach them to a belt loop and keep them out of the way while you’re digging.

Digging Razor Clams

Finding razor clams

Razor clams are about a foot down in the sand, in the surf. They reveal themselves when they create a little volcano or depression in the damp sand. Watch as someone walks across the beach, most of the depressions that form are made by razor clams pulling their necks back into their shells. As the clams are feeding they’ll also build little volcanos in the sand. The size of the depression or volcano is usually correlated to the size of the clam, look for the bigger ones. Remember you have to keep the first 15 you dig, bigger clams equal more to eat.
Razor clams like to be where fresh water feeds into the sea so that’s always a good place to start looking.

Digging razor clams with a shovel

You need to dig quickly, on the sea side of the hole. If you’re really quick you can sometimes flip them right out onto the sand. This is not something I'm any good at.

Digging Razor clams with a clam gun

You’ll want to learn to use the gun on some tester spots because it can be difficult to use. There are one or two holes somewhere on the top of the gun. As I mentioned before, guns with holes on the handle are easier to cover and create a vacuum to suck the clams and sand up.

With the hole uncovered, you push the gun as far down as you can into the sand over the clam with a slight angle towards the sea. When you’re in as deep as you can manage, cover the hole to create suction and pull the clam gun out, drop the sand and go back in the hole for another core. If there’s a clam in your first pull you should see it easily, if you don’t it’s always worth taking another two pulls. After that the clam is probably too far down for you to reach. You can also do one pull with the gun and go armpit deep in the hole to grab the clam, either way works. Sometimes you have to rock the gun back and forth or twist it side to side to get it into and out of the sand, but be careful not to break suction or you can lose your clam.
Make sure to have your license on you, safe from the water, and make sure to keep track of how many clams you have.

If you’re only driving a couple hours and it’s not a hot day you can just put your clams in a closed container so they don’t dry out. If you’re driving a ways or it’s hot, you can put them in salt water, fresh or on ice. The best way to transport them is in an ice chest on top of ice. If you put them in fresh water you’ll need to clean them that day since it will eventually kill them.

Cleaning Razor clams

It’s always best to clean razor clams the same day they were dug but you can wait until the next day. People say it’s okay to clean and eat them after they die but we always prefer to make sure they stay alive until we clean them.

You will need
Knife or scissors
Bucket or large bowl
Pot of boiling water

When you know you’re ready to clean your clams put them in a large bowl or bucket with fresh water. While they’re in water the clams will spit out sand making them easier to clean. You’ll probably want to change the water once and then rinse the clams off one last time.

Scalding razor clams

To remove the clams from their shells you need a pot of boiling water big enough to submerge them in. This is a messy job that's really nice to do outside on a propane burner.

You can use your fingers, a pair of tongs or a big spoon to swish them around in the water and pull them out. The clams have been in the water long enough when they relax and the shell starts to open. At this point, they should pull easily from the shells, with the muscles staying attached to the clam. If not, they haven’t been in the water long enough. There’s a sort of mucous all over the clam that you also want to remove right now. Depending on the time of year and the size of the clam there might not be very much mucous.
Once the clams are out of their shell they need to go straight into cold water, ice water is best, this is to stop any cooking that might have started in the boiling water from continuing.

Gutting Razor clams

[caption id="attachment_2313" align="alignnone" width="553"] You can see my uncle doesn't clean his clams exactly the way I do.[/caption]

Take the clams out of the cold water and rinse them again. You’ll want to gut the razor clams near a running water source. This is easiest with a sharp pair of scissors but you can do it with a knife. Hold the razor calm with the neck facing you. The neck has two holes, cut all the way down the side of the smaller tube opening both tubes in the process but leaving the larger whole intact on one side so the clam neck is butter-flied open.

Continue your cut down the clam so you open up the body cavity and just the first half inch of the foot. You want to remove the gills and the dark brown digestive tract, you can also cut the tip of the neck off since it can be very tough. The foot is filled with what we call “fat” that is slightly darker than the rest of the clam but much lighter than the digestive tract. You want to preserve as much of that as possible because it’s fragile and delicious. As you work, rinse the clam regularly to keep from grinding sand into the flesh.

Cooking Razor Clams

You can eat the razor clams fresh, grind them or leave them whole, can them or freeze them.
Some people like to save the foot for frying or baking but grind the neck to use in chowder. Some of my family grind and can the necks so they can make clam chowder all year. Clams freeze well but like most seafood the quality starts to degrade noticeably after about three months in the freezer. Without a doubt our favorite way to eat razor clams is fried the same day they were dug.

Fried Razor Clams

You will need
Cleaned razor clams
Flour
Bread or cracker crumbs
Salt
Ground pepper
Garlic granules
Butter
Olive oil

Directions:

Make a mix of two parts flour and one part crumbs. Lay your clams out and season both sides to taste with salt, pepper and garlic. Heat a large castor iron or stainless steel pan with olive oil and a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat. While the oil is heating, coat your clams in the flour and crumb mix and set them aside. When the butter starts to sizzle you can add your first round of clams. Flip them when they are golden brown, it won’t take long. Add another tablespoon of butter before starting each batch and add more olive oil as necessary. You want enough fat that the clams are all setting in it.
We’ve eaten nothing but a pile of clams for dinner on more than one occasion without feeling the least deprived. They are also excellent along side rice and vegetables. We pretty much eat every kind of sea food you can think of with rice and vegetables, it’s always a good combination.

If you’re still on the fence about razor clams just go for it! Unless you’re one of those poor souls that doesn’t like seafood you will be in love with razor clams. They are delicious, easy to cook and worth every little bit of work involved.

why is my grassfed and pastured meat tough?

2016-01-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Meat from grassfed and pastured animals can get tough and dry if cooked like conventional meat. In this article I'll explain why there's a difference and how you can keep your grassfed and pastured meat from being tough and dry.

Thinking of the sleepy peeping of chicks from the back seat makes me smile even now. I hadconvinced AJ that it was time again to raise another batch of Cornish cross meat chickens. We made our way home with our talkative box on one of those cloudy Pacific Northwest days where you couldn’t say what time of day or even what time of the year it was. We spent the next two and a half months obsessing over their care, moving their pen to fresh pasture daily and awaiting the day they would fill our freezer.

Make no mistake, raising animals is hard work. The value we assign to our home grown meat is based on more than just the expense of producing it, and we don’t part with it lightly. You can understand my horror and confusion when AJ’s parents thought their first taste of our home grown chicken was a “little tough.” That chicken that we had so lovingly cared for since it was a day old chick. That chicken that we had carefully and compassionately butchered; taking pains to process in a way that would be the most humane and use as much of the animal as possible. That chicken, was tough.

I couldn’t understand it; I had already cooked one and it was delicious and tender. My brain raced to find a solution, and then I remembered: AJ’s parents are used to eating store bought conventional, or as we call it “concentration camp” chicken. Our chickens don't cook the same as store bought chicken.

It was one of those moments that makes clear how far we’ve come on our real food journey, and because of that, how differently we eat from the average American. I realized that people cooking pastured and grass-fed meat for the first time may face the same disappointment as my in-laws. How terrible would it be if they wrote off such an awesome food because it cooks differently than the meat they usually eat!? That, my friends, would be a tragedy.

I’m here to give you a science lesson so you better understand why grass-fed and pastured meat cooks differently. I’ll also give you some ideas to deal with it. Buckle up, it’s about to get nerdy around here.

Why is my Grass-fed and Pastured meat tough?

What does Grass-fed, pastured and CAFO mean?

The typical animal in the American food system in raised in a Confined (or Concentrated) Animal Feeding Operation commonly referred to by the abbreviation CAFO. Think feedlot beef, caged layers and pigs in gestation crates. Animals raised this way get minimal exercise and are fed a diet specially formulated with the cheapest ingredients so they gain the most fat and muscle or lay the most eggs as quickly as possible.

Animals that could be grass-fed but that are in CAFOs are commonly fed animal protein or grain to increase their production. Animals that should be eating vegetation can only handle so much animal protein and grain in their diet. When they get too much they start to get sick. High grain diets change the pH of the cow’s rumen making the cow sick and allowing E.coli to grow; potentially exposing anyone who consumes products from that animal to the bacteria. Strains of E.coli that regularly put people in the hospital develop in the rumen of cows that eat excessive amounts of grain. Just a short time back on hay or pasture allows the rumen to regulate its pH and eliminate the E.coli.

These systems don’t consider the animals’ natural behaviors or long term health. The conditions are cramped, filthy, and sometimes dark. The days are an endless monotony of frustration and fear. When you eat CAFO chicken, beef and pork you’re eating misery. Chew on that.

Grass-fed and pastured animals live and eat very differently.

Grass-fed animals are ruminants and hind-gut fermenters. This means they are biologically intended to be herbivores that eat mainly vegetation. Grass-fed animals can theoretically survive on nothing but pasture but since most of our soil has become deficient in key minerals a source of supplemental minerals and vitamins are frequently fed.
Cows, sheep, rabbits, goats and geese, are all examples of animals that could theoretically be grass-fed.
.
“Pastured” is a term as unregulated in the food industry as the term “natural”. In my opinion it should refer to omnivorous animals that live on pasture or with daylight access to pasture but that need additional feed. These animals can theoretically forage for all their nutritional needs by eating things like nuts, roots, small animals and bugs but in reality they rarely have access to a large enough area to provide sufficient forage.
This includes chickens, ducks and pigs.

When a farmer raises grass-fed and pastured animals with sincere intentions of providing them with a biologically appropriate life they live very differently than they would in a CAFO. The animals have space to express their natural instincts to root, graze and scratch; things they wouldn’t be able to do in a CAFO. Unfortunately, some farmers don’t raise grass-fed and pastured animals with sincere intentions.

The regulated USDA definitions leave a lot of room for interpretation and the USDA doesn’t even have a regulated definition for “pastured.” No matter what the label says it’s important to ask the farmer or butcher exactly how the animal was fed and raised

Here are USDA definitions taken directly from this and this public USDA internet document.

Free-range: This label indicates that the flock was provided shelter in a building, room, or area with unlimited access to food, fresh water, and continuous access to the outdoors during their production cycle. The outdoor area may or may not be fenced and/or covered with netting-like material. This label is regulated by the USDA.

Free range or free roaming: producers must demonstrate to the agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.

Grass-fed: Grass-fed animals receive a majority of their nutrients from grass throughout their life, while organic animals’ pasture diet may be supplemented with grain. Also USDA regulated, the grass-fed label does not limit the use of antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides. Meat products may be labeled as grass-fed organic. *** The USDA as of January 2016 has retired thier grass-fed label. There are other independent labels for grass-fed though, read this for more information***

Pasture-raised: Due to the number of variables involved in pasture-raised agricultural systems, the USDA has not developed a federal definition for pasture-raised products.

If that list of definitions doesn’t have you scratching your head you should probably read it again. Please ask your farmer and butchers exactly how the animals were raised and fed; don’t depend on a label.

Let’s walk through those definitions briefly.

For the Free-range definition it says “access to the outdoors during their production cycle.” For the months before the birds start laying producers are not required to let them out of the building. Our birds are outside during the day starting as soon as they can be without a heat lamp.
Chickens are creatures of habit, not allowing them access when they are young means they are going to spend less time overall outside foraging. I visited a commercial egg farm with a college program here in Washington. This particular farm has a major organic and free range project. They drove us down by their free range houses in their tour buses. There were no birds outside. They never let us close enough to the house to smell if there was ammonia, a sign that manure needs cleaned up, or to see what condition the birds were in. We were never closer than a mile from their caged layer facilities. We only got to see those as distant, white windowless buildings.

On the beef side of things, read the grass-fed definition again. Did you notice that organic grass-fed beef can be supplemented with grain? What the heck is that about? There also aren’t any specifications about how they are living. They could be in a feedlot just like any other CAFO beef cow.
Moral of the story?
If you want to know how they are really being fed and cared for you need to talk to your butcher or farmer.

How does this affect the meat?

For starters animals grass-fed and pastured in the true sense of the word are moving around a whole lot more. Used muscle is tougher than unused muscle, that’s why veal (confined baby cow) is more tender than an old milk cow. Muscle that’s used more is also darker because mitochondria, the energy producing organelle in a cell, multiply in harder working muscle.

CAFO animals are fed diets high in carbohydrates that put fat on the animal more quickly. A cow eating grass takes much longer to put on fat.

All of us animals put fat on in a specific order. It’s first laid down around the organs. Fat around the organs is a good thing, up to a point of course. It acts as padding and insulation. Next, it’s laid down under the skin and last, in the muscle.

[caption id="attachment_2158" align="aligncenter" width="426"] photo courtesy of my friends at Pasture Deficit Disorder, please go visit there website and say hi! http://www.pasturedeficitdisorder.com/[/caption]

That marbling that makes meat tender is from fat in and around the muscle. Since grass-fed and pastured animals aren’t getting the calorie loaded diets they don’t always have as much marbling and it takes them longer to have any marbling.

There are other factors that can make your meat tough that have nothing to do with if the animal is eating grass or not.
Animals that are stressed before and during slaughter don’t age well so the meat doesn’t become tender. This happens when animals are not slaughtered in a humane and quick fashion. No matter how it was slaughtered, improperly aged and overcooked meat will not be as tender as it should be.

How to deal with it?

Before you buy it:

Talk to your butcher or farmer about how the animals were raised, slaughtered and processed. If you’ve had a bad experience with meat you’ve bought there before, be honest. They should care and offer advice. If they don’t, you may want to consider buying your meat elsewhere.

You might want to ask:
If and how the meat was aged
What the animals were fed
How the animals were housed
How old the animals were went butchered
What cut they recommend for the meal you’d like to cook

When you get it home:

Let it rest

Instead of cooking the meat that night let it set in the fridge a couple days covered on a plate. During that time it will continue to go through the aging process and become more tender. Before you cook meat allow it to warm on the counter. Cooking meat when it's straight from the fridge makes it loose more moisture and stops a good browning from happening.

Brine, marinate, rub or cure

The acid, salt and sugar help breakdown muscle fibers in the same way that aging meat does. For meat you know is going to be tough; such as old hens or old cows, this is the best way to go.

Cook it low and slow

Lowering the cooking temperature and lengthening the cooking time can prevent the meat from drying out so it stays moist and tender. You can accomplish this by covering meat for the first part of the cooking time in the oven, by cooking in crock pots and by just dropping the cooking temperature.

Cook it rare or cook it precise

For red meats the easiest way to retain the good texture is to cook it rare. This is probably why you don’t hear a lot of people complaining about tough grass-fed beef.

For either red or white meats keeping close tabs on the temperature can make a huge difference. Meat continues to raise as much as ten degrees from the temperature you read in the oven or pan. So take your cuts out ten degrees before your ideal temperature. Meat thermometers are easy to use and there are endless temperature guides online so don’t let this intimidate you. This is also why it's so important to let meat rest before you cut it up. That little bit of time lets the juices redistribute throughout the meat.

For further reading on cooking grass fed and pastured meat check out this book, The Grassfed Gourmet

Hopefully this will help you cook a nice tender grass-fed steak or pastured chicken the next time around. Let me know how it goes!

Seed Catalogs I recommend for Heirloom, Open pollinated and organic varieties

2016-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

It’s that amazing time of year where the seed catalogs come pouring in and I dream about the garden. Okay, Its more like I obsess about the garden. How many square feet can I plant? How much and what kind of seed do we need? What do we have room to start early? How many pounds of potatoes do we actually need to plant to feed five people? The endless questions I ask myself!
I spend a lot of time planning the garden and as much or more time reading reviews on companies and varieties, and comparing catalog offerings. I thought since I’ve already done so much leg work I might as well put together a list of companies to buy heirloom, open pollinated and organic seed from for you.
This isn’t a complete list, it’s just the companies that I’ve bought from or done some looking into already.

Seed Catalogs I recommend for Heirloom, open pollinated and organic varieties

Baker Creek

I love this company. They have some of the best prices around. They often have varieties that are not available anywhere else but on the other side of the coin they don’t always carry popular varieties. I highly highly recommend Baker Creek.

Seed Savers Exchange

I always drool over this catalog but I haven’t bought anything from them yet. Their prices tend to be on the high side but you can order large quantities of many varieties which is great if you want to grow a lot of something.

High Mowing Organic Seed

Great selection, generally good prices and large quantities available.

Bountiful Gardens

This is part of the John Jeavons company which does the “grow biointensive” method. They have lots of varieties you can’t find elsewhere and lots of Permaculture type plants. Check them out!

Grow Organic

This company has excellent prices, however buyer beware. The word on the street is that the customer service and live plants are hit and miss on quality. I have yet to place my order with them but I will be ordering seeds from them this year. It seems from reviews that this company is fine as long as you order seeds or small not alive items and you order early and don’t need your order to show up when it is suppose to. But GrowOrganic has a horrendous reputation if you’re ordering live plants or large items. The prices are really good so I think it’s a risk worth taking.

Territorial seeds-

Lots of selection but sometimes on the more expensive side. There has been much concern about territorial being owned by Mansanto. That is in fact a panic induced overstatement of the situation. A large seed supplier, Seminis, which sells seed to many catalogs was bought by Mansanto. Last I knew Territorial no longer buys seed from Seminis, if you’re rightfully concerned Territorial seed will happily answer your questions. For more information on this topic read this article by Northwest Edible Life-a brief history of Mosanto and the seed houses who got screwed

Potato Garden

This is a great little company that just does potatoes, garlic, onions and shallots. They have great prices but sell out pretty fast.

Filaree Garlic Farm

This is another small company that does potatoes, garlic, shallots and sweet potatoes. I love them because they are local, just a drive away in Omak Washington.

Now, go forth and order seeds!

Is there a seed company I missed that you love? Tell me about them in the comments! I might add them to my list.

Whole Again: Wrapping up 2015

2016-01-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

Hello my lovely folks,
I hope you all had an excellent New Years, Christmas, Thanksgiving and anything else you celebrated. It’s been quieter than normal around here; our life on the other hand has been some form of chaos for the last six months. I thought it was high time I filled in the large- er, huge may be more appropriate- gaps for you and gave you a look around our new place. Be forewarned, you might want to settle in with Kleenex and a hot drink, this isn’t exactly a rainbows and unicorns story. This has been hard for me to share because I want to inspire you, not discourage you. Rarely is the whole honest version of a story without sorrow even when it ends happily, this is no exception.

This is a set of panorama type photos of the property

[gallery size="full" type="slideshow" ids="2210,2215,2211,2216,2212,2213,2208,2217,2218,2219,2220,2221,2222,2214,2226,2227,2228,2229,2230,2231,2232,2233,2234,2235,2236,2237,2223,2238,2200,2201,2197"]

If you’ve been following along on facebook you know some of what has transpired since I graduated in June. The week of graduation was spent in frantic packing and distracted graduation party planning. Then we were loaded up and gone just two days later.
That morning was clear and beautiful. The birds were carrying on in the tangled forest just across the fence from the barn. The horses hadn’t been fed yet and watched us expectantly. The trailer and trucks were crammed with as many of our earthly possessions and small angry animals as we could fit. It was an adult version of the closet crammed so full that opening it again is dangerous to life and limb. As I finally climbed into the truck I was surprised to find myself crippled with emotions; perhaps exhaustion took the legs out from under my usual resolve. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to be moving but it wasn’t that simple. We were writing the very last page in the book that contained all our married life, and my entry into adulthood. We were leaving a community of people who had supported us during our time away from or families and the community that we grew up with. The folks in Thurston County became dear to us. We were also leaving Cal, buried there under her A-frame dog house. I was saying good bye to a college that had not just given me knowledge and skills but made me a better person. And, what were we headed to?

Yes, we had a plan, but plans rarely match the reality they try to direct. We were going to a place that was not prepared for us and there was no time left for preparations. I felt a great since of trepidation and excitement. My dreams were so close I could almost wrap my fingers around the barns, pastures, gardens, orchards and greenhouses. Very few of us start out living on the piece of heaven we dream about. Instead we save and we plan and hunt for “the place”. And then we move. Full of dreams and hopes. Excitement and confidence. And, just a little exhausted and sleep deprived. We are neither the first nor the last to have this experience. Such were my thoughts as we raced the sun home. Home. Home to stay after five years.

We might have been going home but that didn’t mean we had a house to live in. AJ’s relatives gave us a camp trailer; the first of many acts of generosity we were blessed with this summer. The camp trailer has actually worked out better than I could have dreamed. We only gained 55sqft but it feels big compared to the 240 sqft apartment in the barn.

This set includes an arial diagram, property lines and our trailer

[gallery type="slideshow" size="full" ids="2209,2225,2203,2204,2205,2202,2206,2207"]

Since there wasn’t a coop the chickens stayed in their transport crates or moved into empty rabbit cages. That was a couple miserable weeks for all of us. The temporary coop we managed to set up couldn’t have kept a half dead 20 year old Pomeranian out, let alone the predators we know call this place home. This summer was one of the hottest and driest. Rabbits don’t do well in hot weather. I had them under a pop-up with improvised feed bag walls, on the north side of a building, and I still had to battle to keep them comfortable. Every morning the chickens would migrate from their coop to the cool recesses under our trailer. They would stay there until it cooled off again at dusk. We had, and still have, stacks of storage containers, piles of animal supplies, irrigation equipment, tools, my set of good dishes, keep sakes and recycling- oh and don’t forget the chickens!- shoved under the trailer we call home.
Our permanent chicken and rabbit building, The Racken House, wasn’t finished until a few weeks ago. The morning after I moved the rabbits into the Racken House, by head lamp no less, the pop-up they had been under collapsed from our first heavy snow.

This summer I took to wearing sport shorts, tank tops and a wetted heavy cotton button up shirt to stay semi-functional through the hottest days. During our time in western Washington we had forgotten how hot the hot days are here. We forgot about the dust that coats everything. The reality of this summer was fire kill black and red pines. Blackened crumbs of wood, ash, dust, sand; that all billow up and run off to the neighbors. Dead plants parched for water. Wind that steals the moisture from your lips and the soil from under the trees but disappears on the 104 degree days when you most desperately want it.

It seemed like every day was some kind of battle. Against the weather, the dryness, the shortness of hours in a day. During all of this my husband lost an uncle, great uncle, a previous boss and his grandfather while two sets of my grandparents were in the throws of divorce. Unfortunate times?
It’s been a head down, pull the wagon up the mountain sort of time. More than once I found myself wondering if we were all going to make it to winter.

The work was so all consuming and merciless that I had forgotten why we were even doing this. What was this dream we had anyway?
We are doing this for the green pastures where fat and glossy animals graze, for the trees with birds, bugs, buzzing bees, ripening fruit and nuts. For the chickens hunting in the grass and people laughing in the shade. We are doing this to feed ourselves, to feed our community, to teach people how to be stewards of their land and animals. That is the dream.

Less than a month after we transplanted ourselves my mom was given an abrupt eviction notice. Our own unpacking and preparation for winter slammed to a halt as we shifted gears to focus on her. I’m not sure what we would have done if someone hadn’t donated a gutted trailer house for us to move to the property and set up for her. Moving my mom is a string of blurry days that lasted from before dawn to well after dark. I felt like I was chipping away at a mountain with a tooth pick. We greeted the end of her move with what can only be described as hysterical exhaustion and relief. When we finally moved the last load I thought to myself, it’s going to get easier after this. I sort of caught a glimpse of that pasture and those trees through the moving boxes.
On a Monday morning not long after I sat holding one of my cats as the last shudders of life left his soft sweet body. I was overcome with fury. Why the HELL does this have to be so hard? Yes, I really said that, and some other choice phrases. I'm no saint, hopefully you aren't too scandalized.

I thought of Jobe’s wife who told him to curse god and die.
That morning I buried my friend on a south east slope and stacked a carren that points to nowhere over him. I scratched wildflower seeds into the dirt and decided it was a good place to plant a chestnut tree. I didn’t curse god. I wanted to. But I couldn’t. My little friend had a good life from his first breath to his last. Death is an inescapable reality of life. As someone who has decided to bind themselves to the raising of food I see a lot of death. I bring about death. Knowing how starkly fragile life is has made me value life all the more.

In my frustration and anger over the direction our life seemed to be spiraling toward I made myself, the animals and the land a vow, and prayed, that things would get better. That it would not be this bad, this hard, anymore. And it wasn’t.

It seems to me that there is a force of evil, call it what you will, that works overtime to derail and destroy good things in our life, our dreams and our joys. After that, in spite of the bad that continued to happen, all the good in the universe came to our aid. We were given copious building material, everything from roofing and lumber to windows and woodstoves. Materials that helped us build the Racken house and set up my moms new house. At some point late in the summer a trickle of produce turned into a flood and I spent days on end canning produce we were given and I was thankful. Its felt like there was a haze of negativity here since my grandparents separated and the Carlton Complex fire swept through. This fall it finally started to lift. We were blessed, blessed beyond measure.
In the fall things started to slow down some. In the empty hours I faced some serious self examination. I realize that I had baggage to unpack. I had spent five years away from this place in a form of self-imposed exile while I was at college. This land is part of my soul in an inexplicable way. In order to survive those five years I had to pack away parts of myself. I used to paint, draw and write poetry. All those things had been tucked away both because college required all of me and because homesickness sucked the creativity out of me. I avoided admitting how homesick I had been for the last five years because it only could have made it unbearable to stay and finish college. I missed every rocky snow peaked mountain, every hill, shadow, sunbeam, dust moat, tree, snag, bush and creature. Being back in this place has made me whole again.

Here on the other side I look back and find it was worth every second of hardship because I am happier than I have been in years. Don’t get me wrong, I loved college. I have a slightly irrational love of learning that made college rewarding and actually fun, even though it was hard work. Now, I still learn whatever I want but I’m also finally getting to start projects I’ve been waiting to start my whole life. In 2016 I’m going to plant a small market garden, or a huge regular garden, either would be a true description. I will be figuring out the farmers market gig and hopefully find some folks who want to commit to CSA shares. I’m also planning to start selling rabbit meat for-reals, but first I have to find farmers to buy feed ingredients from, build feed storage and set up a slaughter system that works for butchering more than a litter at a time. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, we have lots to do!

And where is that all heading? What’s our plan for this place? Why, I’m glad you asked!
My goal is a farm that is focused on providing CSA shares, preserving heritage breeds, improving the land and teaching classes. Enabling people to live better by offering education is extremely important to me. Life From Scratch will continue to play a role in that, hopefully working along with classes we will be able to offer on the farm.

As I consider where the last year has taken us I feel like I could take on anything. Famous last words, right? It’s been a tough slog and I’ve gained new muscles and endurance, both mental and physical. Whatever 2016 brings I feel a peace and confidence grounded in knowing that I didn’t just survive 2015, I’m better because of it. The new year is a blank book and I’m eager to start writing.

Raw Cranberry Relish

2015-11-24T01:04:00.000-08:00

This raw cranberry relish is sweetened to taste. The whole lemons, limes and oranges mellow and sweeten as they soak up the sugar but keep the relish bright. Raw cranberry relish is simple, great to make ahead and gets better with age. Make a batch of raw cranberry relish for Thanksgiving and save some to eat at Christmas too.

Certain things make it the holidays for me. Snow and wood smoke, are big. Citrus, pumpkins, squash, Christmas music, sugar cookies and mincemeat cookies, pumpkin rolls and Brussels sprouts. But, I know the season is really beginning when its time to make cranberry relish.

Raw Cranberry Relish

5 bags –or 17 ½ cups fresh whole cranberries
10 oranges - unpeeled, quartered and seeded
5 lemons - unpeeled, quartered, and seeded
5 limes - unpeeled, quartered, and seeded
sugar to taste ( I go for 7 cups of sugar)

base recipe ( small batch)

1 bag or 3 ½ cups whole fresh cranberries
2 oranges- unpeeled, quartered and seeded
1 lemon- unpeeled, quartered and seeded
1 lime- unpeeled, quartered and seeded
1 1/3 cup sugar

Prep Your Fruit

Rinse your cranberries and let them drain.
Vigorously scrub your citrus with dish soap or vegetable soap. Really put your back into it.

Maybe it’s just me, but at the store it seems like everybody and their kid has to touch the citrus. You will be grinding whole fruit up for this raw cranberry relish so you want squeaky clean skin. If you can manage it, it would be best to make this recipe with organic citrus and cranberries. I can find organic citrus here but not cranberries. Do the best you can and don’t sweat it.

If there are stem pieces attached to any of the fruit pop them off. Just ’cause this is a raw cranberry relish doesn’t mean it needs to have wood chips in it. Just sayin’.

Quarter the citrus and remove the seeds.

Grind Your Fruit

I prefer a fine grind for raw cranberry relish because it helps mix the flavors and allows the sugar to really soak into the fruit.

I use an old school hand grinder ( like THIS) to make my cranberry relish but you could use an electric grinder or a food processor. You could probably use a blender if you could manage to not liquefy everything. I know I couldn’t pull it off.

If you use a grinder make sure to put a bowl under it to catch the juice you’ll make. The cranberry relish won’t be the same without it! Just a kind suggestion, make sure the whole grinder is clean. Because the juice is going to run down it and you aren’t going to want to put that juice in your relish if it just dripped over a scuzzy clamp that hasn’t seen water in three years.

Sweeten, Stir and Wait

Once you grind your fruit mix it well and taste it, before you add any sugar. This way you’ll know the base sweetness of the relish. Keep adding sugar, mixing and tasting until you’re satisfied.

It’s best to make this a week or so ahead. Of course, I procrastinated so this year ours will only have three days to age before thanksgiving. As it ages the fruit really soaks up the sugar and let their flavors mingle. This batch will be eaten at Thanksgiving and a few times between then and Christmas. At Christmas it will hit its peak. Sometimes there’s even a little left for new years. This relish won’t go bad easily because it’s very acidic and has added sugar. Instead it just ages and mellows and becomes more delicious, until you’ve eaten it all.
This is a simple, fun recipe. Go ahead and play with the fruit. Maybe add ginger, or pomegranate seeds even. Have fun! Get the kids to crank the grinder and don’t stop them when then want to taste everything. You’ll get a few priceless faces out of it, trust me. I have fond memories of making raw cranberry relish with my grandma, I would love to share the experience with your family.
Enjoy!

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The Art of Waiting

2015-06-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

I’ve been sketching farms for as long as I can remember; stacks of fences, chicken coops, barns, gardens and houses. I’ve written intricate plans for buying land and building farms, I have thousands of idea to make the place pay for its self. I came up with most of those ideas as a little kid with a big notebook and plenty of them are still great ideas. It just so happened that I've spend the last quarter of college actually planning a farm on the property we will be moving to. I haven't around much becuase it turns out that planning a 30 acre farm in three months is a lot of work while you're actually living life. Who woulda thunk it!It’s safe to say owning a farm has been a long time goal for me. My path to that dream has been filled with what would appear to be detours, namely devoting years to a college hundreds of miles away from where I want to live and farm one day. Aside from a few subject, I will use what I've learned in college all the time. College was a necessary stepping stone to reach my farm, even if it trapped me in a place I have a complicated relationship with.
I thought living in western Washington would mean all year gardening since it didn’t get hard freezes. I had crazy gardening dreams that first year. What I didn’t know is that instead of freezing solid and being covered in snow, western Washington turns into a swamp during the winter, thoroughly suffocating garden plant that survive the onslaught of moisture loving diseases.

Oh, and yes it freezes here, just enough to kill plants and dreams.

I didn’t give up that easily though, the first summer here we had a huge garden. I learned some hard lessons about the difference between clay soil and sandy soil; many a seed rotted that year. There were plenty of failures but enough successes and lessons that it was still very much worth the effort.

If the gardening doesn't get you down, there’s the dreary cloud cover that sticks around for 85% of the year. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration but I swear, a cloudy day lasts six times longer than a sunny day.

In addition to the challenges of gardening in a climate I’m unfamiliar with, we are renters. We rent from renters who rent from an owner who wants to sell the property we are living on. Our chickens have a reasonably nice run; fenced but not covered and probably three times the size of our apartment. Alas, it’s right next to the Log Palace that the realtors love showing off so much. Our landlords are afraid that if our chickens are free ranging either the owner or the realtor will complain and cause problems for all of us. So the chickens only free range when they jump the fence or when I have particularly defiant days.

The run is down to mud wallows, hard packed earth, tufts of dead grass and feathers. It’s a barren wasteland and it makes me angry and guilty every time I see it. My chickens deserve better than this. We deserve better than this. Our chickens are board and our eggs aren’t as beautiful or as nutritious as they were before.
I want my birds to be able to forage. I want them to trim the lush grass that’s just on the other side of the fence. To fluff the pine needles, pick for grubs in the flower beds and manure. I want them to hang around waiting for treats. I know how much happier they would be and it kills me that I can’t give them that kind of life. Seeing all that un-foraged pasture everyday makes me want to scream to heavens, the injustice is unbearable!
Even though our chickens don’t live the way I would like them to, they still have it a hundred times better than industrial chickens. When they wake up in the morning they jump down from their roosts, flap their wings, stretch up on their tippy toes and take a run to the food bowls. Industrial chickens wake up in one of two places: a tiny cage with other birds or an open barn with a thousand other birds. Full body flapping and running? Not happening for those industrial birds. The birds in those concentration camps are on wire or packed manure all their life. There’s nothing interesting, there’s nothing to do. Since the chickens have nothing to do their foraging instincts are redirected to the only thing they do have: each other. They pick at their neighbors, sometimes to the point of death. To prevent the birds from harming each other they have the tip of their top beak burned off as chicks. This prevents them from picking other birds but also means they will never forage like a chicken should naturally forage. Our birds have space to get away from each other and places to forage. They get to keep their beaks and act like chickens.

Even on the worst day, the life our chickens lead is a dream compared to the life of an industrial chicken. We want to do even better: we want to feed all organic and allow them to free range. Eventually we'll be able to that but I have to remember that what were doing right now is worth while. Being renters limits your options but it shouldn’t discourage you from doing what you can with what you do have.

So many of us are working towards our dream life and putting off learning skills and starting projects because we still have that nine to five job, live in town or rent. You may not be able to have the vineyard you dream about, the herd of goats or the free range chickens yet but there is always a place to start. You can find someone in the county to goat set for, start reading books, tour a vineyard or start a grape vine in a big pot on the porch. These little things are not pointless. They keep your passion burning and keep you focused on your big goals. Every time you see that little grape vine growing up its trellis you’ll be reminded that some day you’re going to have a whole field of grape vines. You head off to work with the grape vines in the back of your head and the day won’t be as terrible because you’ll know it’s only temporary and its helping you get to your vineyard.

I made it through college on dreams of gardens, chickens, goats, and pasture. I try not to count the times people told me I should get rid of my animals, that there would plenty of time for them later. They didn’t realize my animals were why I was sticking with college in the first place. Find something that keeps you going, something that keeps you focused on your goal and never loose sight of it.

My dreams seem so close right now but I’ve still got a lot of waiting to do. Waiting is a required skill for this lifestyle. We wait on seeds to sprout, rains to stop and start, animals to grow and skills to develop. Waiting is an act of endurance; we get better at it as time goes on. Our culture doesn’t encourage or teach the art of waiting. People want what they want now, even if getting it now is harmful in the end. If we get ahead of our self we have seedlings without a garden to grow in, animals without fences and trees without an orchard. There is a natural order we have to obey and fighting against it will only give us grief.

No matter how important, waiting is still awful. I’m no patient monk. Right now I have a roaring case of homesickness, garden fever, spring fever, cabin fever and senioritis. It’s a wonder I’m not running naked in the woods singing about chicks and tomato plants. Seriously, I’ve had about all the waiting I can handle. But here I am, waiting some more.

Waiting isn’t easy or nice but we have to survive waiting because on the other side of waiting, live our dreams!

I can see the fields with happy goats frolicking in them from here but instead of making it easier to stay here, it’s making it harder. It seems to be a universal truth that endings and beginnings are the hardest and it’s no different in this case. It works the other way too, if a situation becomes unbearable it’s probably about to come to an end.

So, as you’re struggling to stay on track, remember you’re not the only one in that situation and eventually, if you don’t give up or jump the gun, one day you’ll be out in that field with the goats, you’ll be picking grapes in your vineyard and your chickens will be fluffing pine needles and trimming the grass. The waiting, will be a memory.

Planning and Getting on a Schedule

2015-04-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is the hardest time of year for me. It’s a time to hold our breath, in between winter and spring, with long dark days. It’s so easy to drift off the path we laid for our self when the sun was bright and the grass green. This is the most important time for me to practice self-care and part of that is staying on a schedule. Having a schedule gives my days and weeks a rhythm that makes everything more enjoyable. It’s like the baseline behind the melody.

Some people feel like a schedule is stifling and weighs them down, I have to disagree. With a schedule I don’t waste time fretting about what I’ll do next or how I’ll fit it all in; instead I have a plan so all I have to worry about are the details.

I’ve found things are hardest before you start them. It’s like some sort of cling wrap that wants us to all stay as we are. It takes work to overcome the cling wrap but it’s worth it. I know I will be happier and more productive once I’ve got myself back on a schedule but I have to drag myself kicking and screaming in the beginning. Here’s how I plan a schedule and get on it.

Planning Your Schedule:

I’m not one for micromanaging my time. I roll with a barebones schedule that only includes essential daily and weekly tasks and events. A schedule isn’t supposed to be a torture devise anyway; it’s suppose to be a tool

I think it’s important to write your schedule down. I’m all about lists and color coding so I made a grid for a week with hour or half hour chunks of time denoted, then I color code different activities. It makes the OCD corner of my heart happy.

My schedule includes:

A daily morning alarm
A daily bedtime
Scheduled 8 hours of sleep
Block of time for morning chores
Regular planned events
Office Hours
Unscheduled time

Daily Alarm

I encourage you to wake up at the same time even on days off. You can stay in bed snuggling your loved ones, reading a good book or just listening to the radio. This is actually something I love once I get in the habit. It takes me about two weeks to get in synch with my alarm. You might find yourself waking up a few minutes before it goes off or be much more awake when it does go off than you had been in the past. I’m a morning person so I try to wake up early enough to accomplish things. I get the best of everything done in the morning. If you’re a night owl set the alarm for as late as possible and prepare for the next day before bed. This might mean showering or preparing lunches at night, laying out clothes, so on and so forth. Our schedules dictate how much of an early bird or night owl we get to be, but you can still plan around your preferences.

Morning Chores

Figure out a morning routine that is efficient and budget for that time. This is really important for me. If I get up and get stuff done in the morning I’m more productive the rest of the day. It’s like some kind of magic trick: wake up earlier and have more energy! I also need to stay on track in the morning. I can easily get sidetracked with a project that could wait. Before I know it the morning is gone and the animals haven’t even been fed. Yikes, I know, just a little bit of “squirrel syndrome”. I swear I’m not that bad. Usually.

My morning routine includes the daily tasks that are best done early either because of my schedule or preferences. If you’re a night owl you might want an evening routine too.

Bed Time

Getting up at a regular time is more important for me but a regular bed time helps me get more sleep. I literally have an alarm named “Bed Time”. It just reminds me that if I want eight hours of sleep I need to go to bed soon. Do I always obey it? Nope. I probably go to bed within thirty minutes half the time. Other nights I go to bed earlier or later but with the alarm I don’t get so wrapped up in something that I work late into the night without realizing it.

Eight hours of sleep

I know people who seem healthy and functional on as few as four hours of sleep. I am not one of those people; anything less than six hours and I’m grumpy, less than five and you should avoid me. I plan so I get eight hours of sleep if I watch my alarms. I’m not going to lecture you on the importance of sleep; suffice it to say it’s easier to stay on a schedule if you’re well rested. Even if you can get by with less sleep, I highly recommend budgeting for it in your schedule.

Office Hours

I use office hours to limit distractions while I’m working on something and to preserve the quality of my day.

I’m a full time student, the lead coordinator for our college ballet club, I raise and sell livestock and I run this blog. That combination means a lot of people can be trying to get a hold of me in a day.
At one point I was getting phone calls after nine o’clock at night. I answered messages, comments, emails and texts all the time. This turned into a huge time suck and kept me from getting tasks completed. My solution to this was to create office hours for myself.
During my office hours I answer school and sale related phone calls but no non-emergency calls or texts. I also stay off the almighty time suck known as Facebook as much as possible. I check my emails only if I’m expecting something important other wise I check them once early, once at lunch and once in the afternoon.
Outside of my office hours I don’t answer school or farm sale related calls or texts unless they are an emergency. I do reply to comments on my page because I enjoy it too much to not do it. If I have project that needs my full attention I stay away as long as I can manage. Part of the way I enforce this is by turning my phone on silent. I also turn notifications off so my phone isn’t constantly buzzing and blinking at me.
If you work at home you will probably benefit from office hours as much as or more than I do. It’s also helpful to use this strategy to limit your time watching TV or stalking facebook. You might try not watching TV until after five or only fall down the internet rabbit hole at lunch and after five.

Budgeted time for recurring weekly & daily events

These are for both fun things like my favorite TV show ( Grimm and Downton Abbey, in case you wanted to know) and obligations like cleaning my rabbit cages and going to class. I add these so that I can see what blocks of time are free around them.
Seeing the remaining the blocks of white space can be a depressing thing if there aren’t many. I would challenge you to take this moment to consider what is worth spending your valuable time on. Are there commitments you’ve made that aren’t helping you achieve your goals? How much time are the cat videos, Craigslist, Facebook, TV and video games stealing from you? Which of your hobbies do you actually love? You have to make those decisions for yourself. We all would have different answers to those questions but answering them truthfully and making changes because of them should have the same affect for everyone: living a more meaningful joy filled life.

Dipping Smelt

2015-04-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

My grandma tells stories of the family dipping a literal bathtub worth of smelt and dip nets so full they broke when pulled from the water wrong. I had never had the opportunity to harvest smelt before but with her stories of a bountiful and delicious harvest I jumped at the chance when a day opened this year.

Due to stock mismanagement our current smelt run is much humbler than the one she remembers. The trip was still worthwhile though; we spent the day catching up with loved ones and came home with twenty pounds of smelt. AJ and I spent Friday night with family so we could get to the river in the early daylight hours. We followed my uncle Kent and a line of headlights to a stretch of the muddy river that he said was a good dipping spot. Considering the caravan; I'd say he wasn't the only one who thought that.
There is a technique to catching the smelt with a dip net. I wasn’t so great at it. If you’re going out on your own don’t be discouraged if it takes you a little while to figure out. According to my uncle, the smelt weren’t running that great but we each got our ten pound limit in a half hour; that’s the fasted fishing I’ve ever been a part of. Back at his house, Uncle Kent showed us how to clean the fish and my Aunt gave me a pickled fish recipe. We spent the rest of the day catching up with family. Our trip was a blast and harvesting delicious, nutritious food was totally worth the price of gas and labor.

Smelt Dipping in Washington

Our smelt have had enough problems to end up on the threatened species list. This means there are only a few short days open to dip them each year. These short seasons help researchers conduct audits of the stock and keep the public interested in smelt. People have to care about a fish if they are going to save it and what better way to get them to care about it than to show them that smelt are fun to catch and delicious? Since our smelt population is recovering it’s important to respect the limit set by the state; we need the fish going upstream to make babies! Also, remember there are plain clothed game wardens all over the place. Being greedy could cost you a lot more than some extra smelt are worth.

The runs usually open for a day at a time in February. We would have gone again if we had any room left in the freezer. You can find places to dip smelt on your own but if you want to find a good spot on the river, you’ll need to talk to some locals. Currently, you do not need any kind of license to dip smelt for personal use in Washington state. This may not always be the case and other states may have different laws, check with your fish and game department. You can find Washington state information here. You'll just need to search for smelt and the year to see if any dates have been announced yet.

What you’ll need For dipping Smelt:

~A warm water proof outfit and boots
~A smelt dipping net, like this
~One bucket per each person dipping
~A fish weighing device, either a scale in the back of your car or one of these fish scales

To clean the fish:

~A pair of scissors preferably, a knife will work
~Clean water

How to dip smelt

I’m going to be honest: I was really bad at this.

You need upper body strength to drag the net through the water and if there’s one thing I’m lacking, it’s upper body strength. I’m sure if it was a better run I would have been more successful but when the run is slow you need all the skill and strength you can muster to get those fishies in the net.

Make sure you’re standing on solid footing. It’s easy to get wrapped up in your excitement and go sliding down a muddy bank into the river; not exactly the situation you want to be in.
The smelt follow the banks of the river, getting closer or further, and deeper or shallower depending on how much they’re being harassed by people with nets. Start out dipping as far out and as deeply as possible. Keep up a good even speed while you’re pulling the net through the water. We were dipping with the current, but I don’t know if dipping against it would make a difference. I suppose maybe it’s like sneaking up on the fish?

When you bring in the net, keep it in the water and pull it as close to the bank as possible before you lift it out. My uncle said a good run could fill your net with enough fish that it would break if lifted straight out of the water.

Each person needs to have a separate bucket for their limit; once you get them off the river and start cleaning them it’s fine to consolidate your fish.

Cleaning the Smelt

You always want to clean, cook or freeze fish as soon as possible for the best quality. Ideally before they come out of rigor, which is maybe five hours depending on the temperature and what not.

Cleaning the smelt is really easy with scissors. Cut the head off just behind the gills, you can save these to make stock. Then slit the smelt open from the vent forward and scrape the body cavity out. If you have a female with eggs you’ll need to remove those gently or leave them in. You can also clean smelt with a knife, it works fine for male but it’s nearly impossible to clean a female with a knife and save the eggs. When cleaning with a knife don’t start your cut at the vent; it’s easier to cut down the body cavity towards the vent in this case. Once the body cavity it empty we give the fish a good scrub. When a sizable number are cleaned we rinse them again before preparing them for whatever their destiny may be.

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We want to use the eggs separately for something but don’t really know to do with them yet. You can leave the eggs in the body cavity and they are delicious anyway you’ll prepare the smelt. If you plan to smoke them it's fine to leave the fish whole. The fish are easier to move while smoking if they are whole and the bones are easy to remove once the fish is smoked. Since both the eggs and the fish freezer well we put them in the freezer until we can smoke, pickle or cook them.

Eating Smelt

It's a white, oily, very delicate fish that cooks quickly. My favorite way to eat smelt is baked with lemons and garlic and then eaten on toast or rice. Frying them whole is also a popular. However you decide to prepare your smelt be careful not to over season or overcook it. Smelt is at its best when done simply.

Little House on the Prairie Giveaway

2015-03-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

When I was finally old enough to realize books were awesome I become a veracious reader. I loved anything inspiring and I especially loved books about animals and how different cultures lived. The Little House on the Prairie® book series is one of my favorites and one of the first series of books that I read. I was fascinated with how the pioneers lived. Since I lived a good a portion of my childhood in off-grid places I saw the characters in the books as kindred spirits. I thought I would get along smashingly with the Ingalls kids and that Pa was just like my grandpa Frank since he also played the fiddle.

I’m happy to present you with this giveaway today! It’s the first giveaway I’ve done on Life From Scratch and I think it’s fitting. The Little House® books inspired generations of people, myself included, and represent the values that we also hold dear: family, community and a respectful relationship with the natural world.

This give-away was set up by the folks who just launched a new Little House on The Prairie® website for all things Laura Ingalls Wilder; you can visit the website HERE. You can also find them on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
On the Little House on the Prairie® website you’ll find a wealth of resources. There are recipes, crafts, historical information and there’s a store where you can buy the books and TV series. They have a tutorial for making corn cob dolls, which my child self was obsessed enough with to actually make. I really loved this article about pioneer gardens. I love finding trees and rosebushes all by there lonesome because I know it means a homestead was there once. The pioneer garden article goes into detail about what pioneers grew and how they planned their gardens. I love that this website is going to introduce the Little House® books to a whole new generation of kids as well as be a fun place for all of us adult fans to visit.

What’s in this giveaway?!

If you’re the lucky duck who wins, you’ll get:
-a copy of the new documentary about Laura Ingalls Wilder
-a copy of Laura’s best selling autobiography, Pioneer Girl
-a Pioneer Girl tote bag
AND the first four seasons of the newly remastered TV series.

This giveaway is coordinated by Little House on the Prairie® through the Homestead Bloggers Network; the Little House on the Prairie® website is also giving away the same prize package. Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter on the Little House on the Prairie® website too so you have a better chance of winning. You could even win two prize packages; because I’m sure you know someone who would love this Little House® awesomeness just as much as you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homemade Lacto-Fermented Ketchup

2015-03-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

Homemade lacto-fermented ketchup is one of the easiest things to make!
If you can taste and stir, you can make this.

I’ve always had a lackluster relationship with ketchup. I liked it, sometimes, but it was always so sweet and one dimensional that I could never really get excited about it. One day we were at a restaurant and they had a bottle of Portland Ketchup Company Ketchup. I wasn’t expecting anything from that bottle. I looked at it only to notice the conventional red goo inside and shake some on my fries. When I tasted it though, I had to check the bottle to make sure that I was even eating ketchup.

It had a rich tomato flavor that reminded me of dehydrated tomatoes (you see them sold under the fancy “sun dried tomato” name), it wasn’t rampantly sweet and it was all kinds of spicy, savory deliciousness.
It took me a long time and many homemade ketchup recipes on pinterest before I started making my own. I couldn’t find a recipe that had the right spiciness and savory notes so I created this based on the flavor of the Portland ketchup. Trust me, you won't miss that store bought ketchup when you're eating your homemade lacto-fermented ketchup with your homemade tator-tots or fried potatoes. This is a thick, barely sweet ketchup with a rich savory spicy -but not hot- thing going on.

~Lacto-Fermented Ketchup~

I encourage you to adjust this recipe to your own taste. Ingredients are linked to Amazon in case you want to buy any or see what they are.

48 oz tomato paste
½ cup fermented veggie juice
½ cup raw apple cider vinegar
¾ cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbs fish sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
½ tsp mustard powder
¾ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp all spice
1 ½ tsp Cayenne powder
1 ½ tsp salt
3 tsp ground pepper
3 tsp garlic granules
1 ½ tsp onion granules

You Will also Need:
Rubber spatula
Canning funnel
Whisk
2 quart & 1 pint canning jars or other nonreactive storage containers
canning lids and rings

Notes on the recipe:

The total amount of fermented veggie juice and vinegar can be increased but probably shouldn’t be decreased. You want enough acid to change the pH to encourage beneficial fermentation bacteria. Decreasing the amount of acid can change the pH enough to allow bacteria to grow that could make you very sick.
If you don't have any fermented veggies to collect juice from you can simply replace that with the same amount of raw apple cider vinegar. If you use fermented veggie juice make sure it is raw. If it's been canned it won't work since the bacteria will have been killing in the canning process.
Unlike the vinegar, the fish sauce is there to gives the ketchup a more savory flavor. The ketchup just wasn’t right until it had that extra little bit of flavor. If you aren’t sure fish sauce is for you, add it last. Taste the ketchup and only add fish sauce if you think the ketchup is missing something. You could also try adding soy sauce, Worcestershire, or some other savory something to give it an extra kick.

[caption id="attachment_1832" align="alignnone" width="383"] If you like my measuring spoon you can buy your own set HERE[/caption]

This is much thicker than typical commercial ketchup. You may want to add more vinegar to thin it. Taste as you go to make sure it doesn’t lose any of it’s awesomeness by being diluted. Some recipes I looked at said theirs expanded a lot during fermentation. We’ve yet to have that happen but I leave some head space and air exchange just in case.
It’s important to note, there wasn’t salt in the tomato paste or seasonings we used. Check your ingredients. If you’re seeing salt don’t add additional until you’ve tasted the ketchup.
As for the actual making it part?

Directions:

Whisk or blend ingredients together, taste to make sure you like it, adjust the seasoning if not. Portion into jars with an inch and a half of head space and leave it in a room temperature place, out of direct sun for three days. Refrigerate and enjoy the most delicious ketchup ever!

[yumprint-recipe id='3']

Only a Farmer at heart Understands

2015-03-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

I was sitting there trying to eat my sandwich lamenting the choice to go easy on the mustard. Not all decisions made at 5:30 in the morning are so wise in the light of day. As I choked down another bite a fellow classmate sat down across from me and attempted to make small talk.
“Do you feel confident about the quiz tomorrow?” she asked.
“Well,” I said, choking down another bite of dry bread and turkey. “I don’t really have the time to be overly confident about it.”
“Oh, why’s that? Are you having trouble in the class?”
“No, not at all and I’ll probably be fine but I don’t have the time to study enough to be overly confident about how I’ll do on a test.”
“Why don’t you have time to study?”
“My husband’s work schedule and mine are kind of in conflict so it’s making things hard, you know.”

At this point I felt like I was being interrogated by a nosy toddler. I just wanted to sit there and actually have a chance to finish my sandwich without choking to death before my half hour lunch break was over. Answering her questions wasn’t helping accomplish that, anyhow I’ve never been a fan of small talk.

But she can’t leave well enough alone, “Do you have to pick him up or something?”
“No, actually he has to pick me up but he has to be at work at 7am so I get to campus at like 6:30 and then some days I’m here until 10 at night.”
“Well I would think if I was on campus that long I would have plenty of time to study.”

I will admit I was too tired to form a good response. My initial reaction was to try to defend myself but I also felt irritated and frustrated. What gave her the right to judge me and my situation?
“Sure, but I have to bring everything with me to do that and pack it around all day…” I started to say but was cut short when another class mate walked by letting us know the door was open now. I made my escape. I never did finish my sandwich.

This has stuck with me. I can’t just forget about it. This woman, who also happens to be significantly older than me, took it upon herself to point out my inability to do it all. It probably shouldn’t bother me so much; it was just a few minutes, a few words and one person’s opinion. But it bothers me a lot. She had a chance to extend her knowledge and support to me. To offer me charity; instead she passed judgment on me.
Days when I’m on campus the only things that get done at home are taking care of animals and making sure we get fed, which more times than not recently has been grab and go crap that I don’t enjoy eating. We literally come home take care of things, fall in bed and do it all again the next day. I study and do much of my homework in the morning block before my first class. On days with time off campus I’m usually racing to get caught up on chores I can’t get to during the week. There is rarely time for homework.

She has no idea what my daily life is like. All of you folks who also have these crazy “from scratch” lifestyles know exactly what I’m talking about. We get up and care for animals and our families and then we rush off to jobs, school or keep working at home like slaves to make our dreams work. There are long days, early mornings and late nights. There are some days we go to that off farm job when all we can think about are the seeds that need planted, the animals that might escape and decimate the garden, and the produce that needs preserved before it end ups on the compost pile. We’ve all lost sleep over the possibility of frost and pregnant, newborns or sick animals. When we set down to dinner it’s often dark out already, thrown together and eaten as quickly as possible so we can get everything done before we fall in bed and do it all again the next day.
Some days we go into town with hay in our hair and a barnyard soup on our boots because we forgot to switch them out for “town shoes.”

This way of life we’ve chosen is not easy. We will never get it all done. There will always be something we should have done. We make endless mistakes and have mountains of regret and doubt. The people who know what we’re doing more times than not think we’re just going through a phase, don’t have our priorities straight or that we’ve completely lost our minds.
Let’s face it: some people are not going to understand. We will all turn blue in the face and pass out from trying to make it understandable to everyone.

We know how hard it can be and we know it’s worth it. And when our paths cross out in the real world there are exchanged wry smiles and nods. There will be days that we feel defeated. There will be days where your choices are judged. There will be days when you feel like it’s you verses the world.
I’m here to tell you that this too shall pass.
I promise, you can handle this. I promise, the sun will shine again.
Right now I’m here to remind myself of it.

We have to stick up for each other and stick together because sometimes what we really need is help at midnight. And the person who will be there isn’t the one who questioned your sanity over adding the goats, it's going to be the gal you met at the grocery store and ended up talking with about chickens for an hour in the parking lot. Sometimes we need a second pair of hands to get the work done and there’s no shame in that. Sometimes we just need a hand up. Sometimes a kind word is enough to get us on our feet again. Just knowing that someone else “gets it” can be priceless. After all, they have no idea how much we love our life and how hard we work for it.

They don’t know about all the beautiful sunrises we see. They don’t know what it’s like to sit quietly in a garden totally overcome with aw. They don’t know about the pride you feel when you bypass entire aisles at the store. They’ve never laughed for joy because the whole menagerie comes running down the driveway to greet you after a long day. They’ve never cried over split milk, dropped eggs or busted fences. They haven’t painstakingly worked on an enclosure for hours just to have the animal it’s suppose to house undo all their work in minutes. They haven’t spent months eagerly pouring over seed catalogs; agonizing over which varieties should have space in the garden. They haven’t had weeks of carefully tended tiny seedlings ruined by a few hours of hungry insects. They don’t know about freezers, cupboards and every empty corner being filled with the fruits of our labors. They don’t know that behind the tears we cry, the sweat drenched shirts, the bloody rags and the exhaustion there is a life that makes waking every morning a blessing. They can’t know the fulfillment of sitting down to a meal where you knew the carrots from when they were just seeds and the steak from when it was just a rounding of its mother’s ribs. They don’t know that things taste better when they’re seasoned memories.

This post is participating in the Homestead blog hop, head on over to find other great blogs like ours!

I've missed you guys!

2015-02-14T02:47:00.000-08:00

If you’ve been following along on Facebook you’ll have an idea of how the last six months have gone. Most of the county we’re from burned last July, about the time I went on hiatus. AJ spent the summer helping with fire clean up. Hundreds of homes were lost but many we thought burned survived the fire. In spite of the huge loss suffered by so many, they came together to take care of each other in a true show of small town community.

Last summer a lot of other things besides the fire were going on. Through a free load of hay we discovered some like minded folks just down the road. Since then we’ve butchered poultry and rooted the Seahawks on together. They’ve quickly became great friends. We had a successful garden that gave us lots of tomato sauce, salsa, and pesto to put up. This fall we raised a batch of Cornish cross and a big batch of flock replacements.

Loosing our Anatolian, Cal, in November was a major blow. I still look for her in the dog house she’s buried under and every time I open the door I listen for the thump of her tail. I think I see her out in the field and I think I hear her at night. Sadly she’s gone on beyond my call.

We plan to find another Anatolian after we move in June. Yes, you read that right! In June I will finally be done with five long years of college and I’ll have a Bachelors of Arts and Sciences from The Evergreen State College. I’m sad to be leaving the community we’ve created here but I am so ready to be back home. I’m excited to be in the shadow of my mountains with the snow, the blistering heat, the dust and the sunshine.

Our long term plan is to buy my grandparents property. This place was essentially my childhood home. It’s full of memories and surrounded by property owned by friends and family. Unfortunately, it’s located in a valley that was hit hard by the fire. Most of the homes there burned and a cloud of sorrow has settled over the folks that have stuck it out. It’s not the same as it was when I lived there as a child. I hope that our presence can start the healing process for the land as well as the people. We’re still in the process of working out the details so I can’t share a lot right now. Things are slowly falling in place.
We’ll be carting all our earthy belonging back home one trip at a time. I’m sure it’ll be an intense month full of crammed car rides, disgruntled animals and frantic cleaning. Oh, boy doesn’t that sounds like fun.<insert sarcastic eye roll> but, it’s going to be worth it. We have a new and exciting adventure awaiting us.
I bet you’ve noticed the changes around here; we are playing in the big leagues now! I’ve been alternating between cursing the WordPress gods and making offerings. I’m about to run out of unblemished lambs. It might not look like much, but behind the scenes a mountainous glacier of work went into getting this site running and it’s far from my idea of perfect right now. If you notice anything wonky or have any problems please let me know so I can fix it! Also, you’ll notice continuing organization and format changes. Let me know if you think they are good changes or not. I’m excited to be back to blogging full time. Just piddle on the floor excited! I’ve got loads of posts just waiting for their chance to get published.
It’s been a roller coaster ride, good and bad all smashed up together these past months. This is the beginning of something good!
Kindest regards,
Emily

Cooked Yolk Mayonnaise

2014-12-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

I grew up in a family that made all kinds of things from scratch. Biscuits, pie dough, bacon, sausage…
But there were still things I had no idea about making. Mayonnaise was one of those things. As a soon to be high school graduate I became interested in traditional food and avoiding processed foods. At the time I didn’t know “traditional food” was a thing. All that interest solidified into me devoting my first year of college to a food and agricultural science program. It was truly one of the most transformative, inspiring experiences of my life.
One of many things I learned was to make mayonnaise. The taste of that freshly made glistening yellow, garlicky spread was not something I would have associated with “mayo.” Commercial mayonnaise is a sad distant, rather ugly, cousin to the luscious mayonnaise that results when you combine delicious fresh eggs with high quality oil and seasonings.

Since then I have transitioned to making a raw whole egg mayo, but if you are just venturing into the land of homemade condiments this recipe is the place to start. You can make this mayo with a hand whisk in small batches. In my experience, it doesn’t keep more than five days in the fridge. Make it in small batches and I’m confident you’ll have licked the jar clean long before it’s gone bad.
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of yolk and oil that creates a silky smooth texture. Some people in my food program were concerned that because of characteristics of the fat mayo made with olive oil would not stay in emulsion. I haven’t had a batch of olive oil mayo not stay in emulsion. There have been few failed batches and none I can attribute to olive oil.

Ingredients:

2 Egg yolks
1 1/2 – 2+ cups olive oil
2 tbs acid source, vinegar or lemon juice
Seasonings to taste

Our Seasoning base:
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Paprika
Mustard
Cayenne

We also like to add…
Dill
More garlic
Cumin

A note about the eggs:
In the raw egg method you use a whole egg, but for this you will need just yolks. You can freeze or refrigerate your whites for another use like angel food cake.There are tough white membranes called chalazae that connect the yolk to the membrane around the shell; you should remove these. They have the texture of overly tough scrambled eggs and you don’t want them in mayo or anything else that should have a smooth texture.

Directions:
Now that you’ve removed the chalazae, beat the yolks until smooth with a tablespoon of water per yolk in a small heavy bottomed sauce pan. Heat your yolk, beating continually, over medium low. Watch this close or you’ll have scrambled egg instead of creamy yolk. When the yolk just starts to get thick take it off the heat. Don’t stop whisking until the yolk has cooled to a touchable temperature. If you’re worried about scrambling the yolk have a bowl of water to sit the pan in when it comes off the stove. On the other hand, if you think it isn’t thick enough you can always return the pan to the heat. When the yolk cools enough that it doesn’t burn your fingers, whisk in the acid and seasonings. Get creative with your flavors! We make a garlicky one for sandwiches and a dill one for egg salad.

Now’s the moment of truth: time for the oil. If you can, have someone else slowly drizzle oil in as you whisk it together. The start is the most important time; make sure you are completely stirring the oil into the yolk. If you start to get a build up of oil along the edges stop adding oil and beat the mixture thoroughly. I usually drizzle and whisk, taking a few breaks from pouring to make sure everything is coming together.
Supposedly, some crazy French guys emulsified a gallon of oil with just two egg yolks. I don’t entirely remember the story and should probably look it up. My point being, this recipe will make more mayo if you add more oil.
I usually make this by hand but you can use a blender. I’ve had bad luck making mayo in my food processor; it just doesn’t get a good emulsion so I stick with my cheapo blender.
The process is essentially the same with a blender. Add your yolk base to the blender, turn it on high and proceed with the recipe. It can take a worrisome amount of time to come together. Have faith friends, it almost always comes together. If you have a truly failed batch you can use runny mayo in potato or egg salads and no one will be any wiser. You can also try to salvage the batch by making a new batch of yolk mixture and slowly adding the failed batch to it as you would oil. Once you’ve added all the oil you want you’re finished.

Try not to eat it all at once.

When The Smoke Clears

2014-07-22T21:09:00.002-07:00

Wildfires have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My grandpa was a private wild land firefighter, both my parents fought fire before I was born and many of my cousins have worked on crews as well.

“Ahhh…the smell of money!” Was what my grandpa Frank said every time the smell of smoke would drift in. We would be prepared for any approaching fire. We knew what we would take, property was regularly back burned, trees thinned, limbed up and cut down around building. Talking about fire behavior was regular dinner time conversation.

But all the preparation, the planning, the talk; was never tested. Fires were fought away from property and people became comfortable, grew lax in their back burns, didn’t limb up quite as high as they once had. Trees were left standing closer to buildings; shade is nice you know, especially in the hot summers.

The cows munched through the scrubby hills, the orchards bloomed and set fruit, the sun rose and the river ran but it was not to be so for long. A fire was coming.

Lightning strikes nestled in timber and grass, fed by wind and fuel so dry it begged for the flame. But, this was nothing unusual. Just more fires that would cause destruction but eventually be controlled and then die away; nothing notable, one among many barely remembered fires.

These fires were not like those before them, the wind nursed them until they raged, until they made their own wind and grew into one roaring maw. So it burned and burned, man and beast alike fleeing. It flew over road, fire line, fire break, river, roof and tree top flicking off into every direction and tasting every thing in its path. It loved the taste of the homes, the memories, the tinder paper and the bubbling plastic. It so loved the taste of the old ones, the loved ones, but it so loved the taste of them all it had to go back for some. They were too sweet to leave behind.

The valleys and hills that are home to me, the places I love, burned. My grandparent’s house is the sole home standing in their valley thanks to the providence of God and my grandpa’s persistent stubborn work to keep his property fire safe. My in-laws and husband are still watching the fire behind their house, waiting and preparing for when they will have to make the decision to fight or flee. The town I went to school and lived in is half gone. Hundreds of homes have been lost, many belonging to people I know personally; friends, relatives, classmates.

I cannot understand how it would feel to look over a blackened smoldering pile of twisted metal, chard beams, bricks and disfigured appliances knowing that they are all that’s left of the place I called home. My heart breaks and breaks again for all that has been lost.

You will find no pictures of the aftermath here; there are plenty on Facebook and all over the internet. Right now I want to remember what it looked like before so when I do finally see the damage for myself, it won’t replace my good memories.

The fire may be leaving my community behind to steal everything from other people but this isn’t over yet. As the smoke clears and the last embers die the real work of cleaning up the damage and rebuilding will start. We might deal with wildfires as a regular part of life but this was not a typical fire by any stretch, in fact it’s the largest in Washington state history. My loved ones have a long road ahead of them and they continue to need help in so many ways. There are two relief funds set up through the North Cascades Bank, one by the city of Pateros and one by the city of Brewster. Those are the best ways to donate since all the money will go to helping those affected. The relief centers are also still requesting donation! There have been rumors going around that they don’t need anymore supplies and that is simply not true. What they need changes often as new donations arrive and needs arise, check the facebook page for current updates on what’s needed.

Being hundreds of miles away there isn’t much I can do to help but my heart is with them. I’m so glad to see the outpouring of support for those affected by the fire and how the community has (and continues to) come together to take care of each other. I’m totally exhausted already and I’m not doing anything but worrying! So I’ll just end this with a plea, if you can donate anything or help in anyway I will be so grateful.

The Little That I Know....

2014-06-25T09:24:00.001-07:00

Today marks three years of marriage for AJ and I.
What to tell you about that time… How to extract the important essence of our struggles and our joys?
I wish I knew!
Instead I’m going to pass on something I’ve learned for every year we have been married: three lessons, three years.

Say I love you and say I’m sorry

Just because you both know you love each other doesn’t mean saying it is pointless. Sometimes all a situation needs is an “I love you”. A bad day can melt away with just those three words. Then sometimes you end up needing to say I love you and I’m sorry in the same sentence. AJ and I both are very stubborn, opinionated lovely people. Unfortunately, we can’t both always be right. When one of us was wrong, said or did something hurtful, we really need to hear the other person say I’m sorry. Acknowledging that you made a mess of things is what lets us move on from a fight.
Oh, and food always helps too.

It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

I can’t count the times a fight started because one of us said something in a way that offended the other. Maybe we are a little hot headed but your tone and the words you pick when you talk to someone else do make a big difference in how they receive what you said. Phrasing concerns and needs with love and gentleness goes a long way towards preserving harmony.

Take care of yourself first or you’ll have nothing to offer anyone else.

All of these were hard for me to learn but this one has probably been the hardest. I’m by no means a hold your hand let-me-get-you-a-glass-of-water wife and I’m sure I won’t be that kind of mother either, but I still forget that AJ and anyone else for that matter really has no idea what I’m thinking and probably only have the faintest idea of what I need.
It doesn’t matter how much someone loves you, you have to put yourself and your relationship with god as a top priority. You gotta take care of your needs or pretty soon you will find that you gave and gave and now there's no energy , no purpose and really just nothing at all left of you. I do not think loosing who you are to another person or anything else for that matter is ok. So weather if it's taking a long shower, reading a book, planting some flowers (which the bees appreciate too you know!), cuddling a sundry baby animals, going to church, hiking, chocolate, massages, pedicures or all of the above, do something for yourself and I promise you will have so much more to give your spouse and everyone else and you will do it much more cheerfully.

Three years of marriage is not very long in the greater scheme of thing. I only hope I will have many more years with this awesome human being god has set beside me in life.

What advice do you have for us, or for anyone else to help a marriage be happy and strong?

Our wedding was photographed by Jessica Rose at Vol. 25 please go check out her Shop and Facebook page too!
This post is participating in the Share Your Cup blog hop, check it out to find other great blog hops like ours!

Butchering a Rabbit~ Part II: Eviscerating & Skinning

2014-06-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Go read Part I if you haven’t yet or if you need a refresher.
Now we are going to start the real work of turning a rabbit into its constituent useful parts.

Here are the materials you need from here on out:

A Sharp short knife you are comfortable working with, such as one of these that my husband makes.
A length of rope or shoe lace
A water source
A large bowl and a small bowl
Something to tie a rabbit to or hang it from
A steel and wet stone or other similar equipment to sharpen blades * if you already sharpened your knives you might not need these. Read this knife sharpening post if you need to learn how*
Courage
Patience

Alright, so now you have a dead rabbit, or more than one.
If you haven’t already you need to string them up someway that they will be secure and can be tugged on without coming free.
Now you are going to tube skin, eviscerate and remove the feet from your rabbits.

When I was a young my dad hunted and trapped animals for skins, that’s how I learned to tube skin. I prefer tube skinning because it keeps the meat cleaner, the pelt cleaner and seems more neat and tidy to me.
It’s also really easy on rabbits.

Tube Skinning:
Start from one of the back feet, you will probably find its easy to do the one that's tied first, unless you have them both tied which is fine too.
Whatever works for you.
Feel the foot for the place where the joint between the foot and the leg is. Now pull the skin tight away from the bone and with the edge of your knife, not the point, slice through the skin to where you can see flesh.

If you are more comfortable using your hands instead of a knife you can do much of this with just your hands. If you want to save pelts take extra care to make sure you don’t ripe it to shreds, which is totally possible if you use too much force.

Once you have a hole you use it to continue all the way around the leg.

Now you are going to cut along the inside of the leg starting by the foot where you just cut around the leg all the way to the crotch.

The best way to do this is to hold onto the rabbit give yourself resistance and use the tip of your knife, back of the bade towards the meat, and run it along to open up the skin.

Like so

Now you are going to do what you just did all over again on the other leg.
Practice makes perfect, right?

Once you have the fur on both legs open you need to cut around the business parts and pull the fur down off the legs. Don’t worry about cutting the tail free yet, we will get there shortly.

Like you did to cut around the leg, pull the skin away and use the edge of the blade to cut through the skin. Pull the skin away as you work so you can see what you are doing.

If you’ve never skinned anything before figuring out the knife technique can be tricky and you will probably make some unnecessary cuts into the meat.
It’s not the end of the world, you have to start somewhere and things worth learning aren’t always easy.

Now you’ve cut all the way around the tail and what not.
Pull the skin down off the legs so it's about even with the hips. This is easiest if you work it free all the way around starting where the leg and foot meet and then pull it down with a moderate even pull.

Rabbit skin at the age when most are butchered is pretty fragile, it comes free easily so too much force just makes a mess of things. An older rabbit it a bit more challenging and you may find you have to use a knife or fingers to remove connective tissue between the skin and meat.

Once you have the skin evenly pulled down around the hips you can get a good hold on either side and pull it all the way down the rabbit to the front feet. If you pull down and not out you shouldn’t rip the skin.

Make sure you have the fur pulled all the way down to the join that connects the feet to the legs. Move the front feet back and forth to find the joint, and cut on either side of it, fold them in towards the body and you should be able to cut through the tendons and either pop them off with just a twist or use the point of your knife in the join to separate it, then cut it apart the rest of the way. You can also use shears for this if that’s how you roll.

Lookie there, it's skinned and two feet are off already!

Next up

Eviscerating:
Just a fancy word for gutting.
You are going to go back up to the patch of fur around the tail.

There is muscle that connects from the thigh to the pelvis, you are going to use the edge of your blade to carefully cut it away on both sides. Then you are going to take both thighs and pull them back to open the hips and crack the pelvis.

Keep carefully cutting the muscle and connective tissue to expose the intestines, be careful you don’t want to nick the bladder or the intestines.

When you have the muscle and connective tissue cut you can open the pelvis up more like you did before to break it.

Next you are going to cut the tail off. Pull the fur up the tail and bend the tail to find a joint, cut through at the joint.

Now use your fingers or just the tip of your knife with the back towards the animal, to open up the stomach.

Gather the tail and the fur around the butt hole up, cutting any connective tissue holding the intestines in place away and pull it forward.

If the bladder is full carefully lift it out of the animal and cut it out high up as close to the animal as you can.

During this process if you get poop or pee on the meat stop and wash it off.
One little pellet popping out isn’t the end of the world just don’t let anything get smeared on the meat or stay there for long.

Now that you have the tail and end of the intestines pulled forward and in your hand, reach into the body cavity with your other hand as far as you can and pull everything you can out.

Usually the heart and lungs will still be inside behind the diaphragm. You should be able to break that with your fingers and full the heart and lungs out too, the esophagus will often come with it.

Now you just need to remove the back feet.

You might have to cut the fur back until you get to the joint. Move the foot back and forth to find the joint and cut into it from either side, until you cut through the tendon and can pop the joint with your knife. Then you just have to take the foot the rest of the way off. You might find it’s helpful to untie it at this point and cut the foot tied up off last while the rabbit is resting in your big bowl.

If you or another human plan on eating the liver the gallbladder should be removed. You can see it here, it’s the green sack attached to the liver. Cut it off with extra liver around it. I don’t do organs but I’ve read that breaking the gallbladder will make the liver taste bad so make sure not to do that. On the other hand if you are going to be feeding it to your dog or cat you should leave it on.

We feed or dog and cats the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and ovaries.
The feet, head and guts the animals aren’t feed go into the compost. If your dog is interested in them you can totally feed them the feet and head. Our dog is a strange picky creature who barely even likes rabbit and won’t have any part of eating rabbit head or feed. A chicken head though, she will gobble that down like candy.

If you are doing multiple rabbits its a good idea to have your bowl full of water to put them straight in once you have one done and are ready to start on the next.

All that’s left now is to clean it up, cut it up and cook it up!
Coming soon

This post is participating in the HomeAcre and From The Farm blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Rabbit Slaughter ~ Part I : Preparation, Equipment & Dispatch

2014-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Since you are reading this I want to congratulate you.
You are (probably) here for one of a few possible reasons: either you have decided that you want to raise something for meat and are trying to decide if rabbits are right for you. Translation: can I really kill and eat something so cute and fuzzy?!
Or, you’ve already taken the plunge into rabbits. Maybe have a litter that needs butchered soon, maybe should have already been butchered, and you realize you really aren’t too sure about this whole 'turning an animal into meat" business and could use a little honest advice and information.
Awesome!
This is one of many first steps in a long often difficult journey to being more in touch with, responsible for and appreciative of your food!
I 10000000% guarantee it is worth it!

I want to start off by saying there are many different ways to do all this that work just fine so if you aren’t sure my way is right for you I can promise there are many other ways, this is just what I’ve found works best for me.

Necessary Equipment

A Sharp short knife you are comfortable working with, such as one of these that my husband makes.
A large cleaver like this, butcher knife (This one is shaped just like mine) or high quality pair of meat shears, I would love to recommend a pair of shears to you but unfortunately I have yet to find a brand I'm happy with.
A length of rope or shoe lace
A water source
A rag to wipe your hands or knife on.
A large bowl and a small bowl
Something to tie a rabbit to or hang it from
Metal or strong wooden broom stick, length of conduit or rebar.
A flat area of ground such as cement, soil that isn't sopping wet or super squishy, or a good solid board on flat ground large enough to fit a rabbit on.
Knife sharpening equipment
Courage
Patience

Preparation: The Butcher

You ready for this?
Being mentally prepared is just as important as having all your knives sharp and equipment laid out. As soon as you have rabbits that might end up being eaten you should start thinking about them in that light. You need to make sure you are being honest with yourself about that fuzzy rabbit turning into dinner. I think how meat animals are raised and treated is very important, if you think more on that topic would be helpful read this post.
People I talk to often have a hard time with just the idea of eating rabbits because they think of them as sweet little pets. While I might disagree with that naive view of rabbits I also have to argue that chickens, sheep, cows, goats, turkeys and all the rest are cute too! I think most folks just aren’t around them enough to realize how cute they actually are.

I really really encourage you to find someone who will let you watch the whole process if you haven’t been around slaughter before. You need to be able to act- not freeze- when the time comes. You don’t want to freeze up and not be able to follow through, that will cause your animals more pain and distress than anything.

I will never lie and tell you it’s easy, at least it shouldn’t be if you have a properly functioning sense of compassion. With practice the acts of slaughter do get easier to do. The mental cost is always the same for me though.
I come face to face with my own mortality and that is never easy.
You on the other hand may not have an over active mind and have a much easier time.

Preparing Your Equipment

You want a fence, hooks in a wall or ceiling so you can easily hang rabbits while you skin and gut them. Whatever you attached it to and whatever you attach it with need to be strong enough to stay put if a good tug is put on them.
Also make sure if the rabbit is going to rest against a wall or fence that the area is clean and paint or rust isn’t going to rub off on the rabbit. You can always staple or drape a clean feed bag over the area to keep everything clean.
There are endless uses for feedbags I tell you!

Sharpen your knives. If you are using shears you should test them on a chicken wing or neck, if they can’t cut through that easily they are not going to work and you shouldn’t even try to use them. It won’t be pretty and it won’t be a good experience.
If you are doing three or more rabbits you may need to sharpen knives midway, you will only likely need to run it over a steel to straighten up the burr but it’s good to have a stone handy while butchering just in case they end up needing a little more work. I’m not going to get into the art of sharpening knives in this post but it is an important skill to get under your belt that I cover in this post.

Preparing The Rabbit

I prefer to leave them with water but make sure they don’t have any feed the evening before butchering. Some people don’t take anything away from them others don’t even leave water. If it’s your first time it’s a good idea to withhold food so the digestive track is smaller and easier to work around. The bladder will also be smaller since the rabbit won’t be eating which generally means they aren’t drinking as much water either. Don’t move them into a smaller cage if you can avoid it, especially a solid bottomed one. They can and will hold their pee because they don’t want to be in their own mess.
A full bladder is much easier to break and you really don’t want pee on meat.
Just sayin’.

One of the things I think so many people over look is keeping their animals tame and easy to handle. I think it’s so important it's in my 10 commandments of good animal husbandry! This whole thing is going to go much easier if your rabbits don’t have a panic attack when you open the cage, never mind attempt to pick them up.
Keeping animals calm during slaughter is not just about being kind and humane. A stressed animal uses up the carbs stored in it's muscles and the meat doesn’t age properly.
A Stressed rabbit is a tough tasteless rabbit.

We have come to the big question: How do you kill a rabbit?
Most importantly, very quickly.
A scared or hurt rabbit will scream. It just about breaks my heart in half and sends me into a total panic.
I’ve had three rabbits scream so far, every single one because I screwed up.
Slaughter is not for the faint of heart my friends, it’s not for everyone. While that rabbit is screaming like to shatter your heart into a thousand pieces you have to keep your head and finish the deed.
That is why it’s so important to know exactly what you are supposed to do even if you have never done it before. That’s why you have to be committed to the act.

Now, I’m not saying this is going to happen your first time or ever, I don’t know how many rabbits I’ve butchered now and I’ve only had three scream.
Eventually it is going to happen though.
I’m giving you a preemptive hug right now; I know how hard it can be but lets put it in perspective.
Animals raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) don’t have a good life, don’t get to be happy, healthy, or express their true nature and they sure don’t have the person dispatching them caring about them as much as, or in the same way that you care about your animals.
Okay, onward!

The method I use is called Broom sticking.
The premise is that you quickly break the head away from the spine instantly killing the rabbit, the fancy term for this is cervical dislocation. There are other methods with the same basic idea. There are also gadgets you can buy or make that do the same thing just not on the ground. I think would be a good option and I might have one eventually.
I was going to have my husband film me slaughtering a rabbit but I just couldn’t feel right about it. I feel like it’s a very personal thing for me and the animal and I’m not comfortable taping it and having it loose on the world wide web. I have been thinking about offering classes and if folks are interested I would love to teach people.
That said, this video is an excellent example of the method we use. I urge you to go watch it!
It’s actually the one that made me decide this was the method for me. Done right it’s fast, someone without a lot of brute strength can do it and as far as I can tell the rabbits are not extra stressed, did I mention it’s fast?
The catch is your rabbits have to be handle-able to make this work, and you have to be comfortable handling them as well.

This is How it Works:

This is where the whole knowing exactly what you need to do and not hesitating thing is gets really important.

First make sure you have everything you need in arms reach.

Now in as close to one fluid movement as possible and almost all at once you:
put your rod on the ground, one foot over one end of it
put the rabbit on the ground under the rod
Put the rod over the rabbit’s neck, right behind the ears against the skull. There is kind of a little indent there, make sure the rabbits front feet are not under the rod by pushing them out to the side instead of straight in front.
Step down on the other end of the rod while pulling the rabbit swiftly straight up, a little forward and a little back by the hind legs.

You will feel the neck break. At this point I pull the rabbit out from under the rod and move a little away from the dispatching area, hold the head steady by stepping on an ear and pulling back on the legs to stretch it a little, cut the head off leaving as much neck and fur attached to the body as possible.
Twitching is totally normal. The rabbit is dead, it's just the nerving firing; it will stop shortly.
If you are strong or dispatching a smaller rabbit you may remove the head all together.
I've done it and I'm no hulk.
It's not something I strive for but it happens; thankfully the animal is already dead by then.
I move away from the dispatch area because once you cut the head off the rabbit starts to quickly bleed out. You don’t want to slaughter the next rabbit in a pool of blood or with a bloody rod. They will -rightfully- scream.

You just slaughtered your first rabbit; take a moment to collect yourself because we aren’t done yet.

In the long run it's more time efficient to slaughter all the rabbits you are doing and then proceed from there, that may not be a great idea if this is your first time or if it’s a warm day since you are going to be pretty slow even though this process with rabbits is 12,367,000 times faster than with chickens.
Make sure to string them up however you like as you go to keep them as clean as possible and to facilitate the carcass bleeding out.

Alright folks, there’s the first part, next up Butchering a Rabbit ~ part II: Eviscerating & Skinning

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, HomeAcre, From The Farm and Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Knife Sharpening Emily Style

2014-06-22T17:26:00.002-07:00

Alright, let’s just start this off by me saying I’m not any sort of expert when it comes to knife sharpening and this is just a crash course.
My husband is a Knifesmith ( here's his Etsy shop and his Facebook page) but I don't think I have much of an advantage as far as knife sharpening goes because of it. I learned what I know mostly from watching older family members sharpen knives and I learned how to use a steel during a pig butchering class given by Farmstead Meatsmith’s in a college program.

I know there are other ways to do all this that might even work better. I also know my ways work and I’m content with them until I learn some new superior method.

Equipment You need

Stone or sharpening block - such as this ,this or this

Steel- this is the closest I could find to the one I have

I made a video because I know I couldn’t learn to do this without watching someone so I supposed you might not be able to either. I know it’s not the best, and my sharpening in it is more than a little strange since I’m trying to watch the camera to make sure I’m still in view while sharpening.
Oh and yes, that chiefs knife needs washed. Don’t hate me for being lazy and making bad videos!
Here’s a blooper where the camera falls over and I make strange noises, in case you haven’t laughed yet today.

Here’s the actual useful video, if you’re interested.

Where to start?

If you’re not sure if your knife really needs sharpened just run it on a steel a few times and check the blade, many times you can bring an edge right back with just a little bit of steel. If a little steel love doesn’t work then you will need to use a stone.

I always start from the handle end and go towards the point, I vaguely remember being told that’s the right direction but I do it mostly out of habit although I think it would be much harder to do it the opposite direction.

One of the most important things is to the match the angle you hold the knife to the stone, sharpening block or steel with the angle of the edge on the knife. Otherwise you won’t sharpen it right.

Make sure to keep the number of strokes on each side the same, this helps keep the burr aligned, too much on either side will make it roll over.
Also try to keep your strokes even, long and consistent, that way the edge will stay consistently sharp.

I think using composite sharpening sticks or a natural or artificial stone is best. I am not a fan of those sharpening block things. Please, this works better, I promise!

To check if the knife is sharp run your finger across the blade, not up and down. Across it, like across the road or across the river. Not down, or you are might cut yourself and I don’t want that to happen on my account!
You should feel a grab running your finger across the blade either direction. If one direction feels smooth the burr is rolled over and you need to work more on the opposite side to get the burr straightened up.

What does the steel do and why do I need it?

The steel works by straightening out the “burr” which is the microscopic cutting edge of the knife. When the knife is used the burr eventually rolls over and stopped cutting as well, eventually at some point it wears off, the knife gets dull and needs really sharpened then.

When you sharpen a knife on a stone (or whatever) always run it on a steel afterwards to make the edge nice and straight.

Other bits of info...

Make sure to wipe your steel off every once in a while and clean your stone when you are done with it.

Depending on what stone you have you may need to use water or oil or neither with it, make sure you know what you should be using and use it! Using the wrong thing could damage your knife or your stone.

Learning to sharpen is definitely an art a well as a science, I highly encourage you to use a cheap knife you don't care about as a guinea pig when you are learning.

Go forth and make yourself a kitchen full of sharp knives!

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, HomeAcre, Share Your Cup, From The Farm and Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Good News On the Horizon

2014-06-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

If you saw my post on Facebook you know I have something exciting to tell you about.

I'm in a program at my college for first generation, low income and disabled students. It's there to give people who are least likely to finish college a hand up and a support system throughout their education.

I'm first generation and low income so I very much qualify for the extra help. It's nice to have someone nag you every once in a while, you know?

This morning I got this email from my advisor:

Hi Emily,

Can you give me a call as soon as possible? It’s about your aid for next year… no worries, just a detail to discuss…

I’m at the number below J

Hope you’re enjoying your time off from classes and homework and bus rides, oh my!

Yeah, she's a funny one, the emails still sent me into a minor panic though.

When I called her I could tell something was up.

Turns out I a got a full tuition wavier for next year!

In case you are still lost: I applied to a whole bunch of in house scholarships last year and as far as I knew didn't get any of them. Turns out the person who does all that got sick, super behind and just recently finally got around to handing out the scholarships.

My advisor had known for months!

All the while I was boo-hooing about not getting any of the scholarships I had applied for, she had pretend not to know anything because it wasn't "official" yet.

I have to say I'm impressed with how well she can keep a secret.

What will this mean for us?

It's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders!

This means that next school year is going to be much less stressful and we won't be rubbing our pennies together hoping for a miracle.

So to celebrate I'm going to share the essay I wrote for the scholarship with you, and some chicken photos cause that's how I roll.

Without further ado ~

In my heart of hearts everything I do stems from my need to nurture, create and understand. I want to see growth and improvement, to leave everything I touch better than I found it. My academic interests have grown out of my desire to leave health, resilience and beauty behind me; like the trail of growing and blooming things Crysta, in the movie Fern Gully, leaves in her wake. Really though, who doesn’t want to be a fairy with magical abilities to heal, make things grow and talk to animals?

When I was seven my parents divorced leaving my mom a single parent of two. She was a junior high drop out as was my grandma; as far as we know all the previous generations of women were just as or even more uneducated. I’m from rural north central Washington. It’s a beautiful place but dependent on agriculture and tourism, making for a brutal job market, especially for a single mother with minimal education and job skills. What happened between then and when I left for college could fill a novel. Suffice it to say, we all worked hard all the time. There were good times and dark times. Times we almost managed on our own and others when we couldn’t even keep a roof over our head without family, community and church friends filling in the gaps.

I think many people who’ve had hard childhoods try to forget what they went through, they want to be just another “normal” person as soon as possible. I understand but don’t feel that way. I will carry my childhood with me always. It has forever colored my perspective. The seven hundred odd dollars of financial aid a month is more than we ever had growing up. Living on such a small amount might be unimaginable to you but I honestly don’t know any other way of living. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard. We just scrape by and continually pray that we won’t have any unexpected expenses. This scholarship would make our current situation easier but more importantly, enable me to finish with a degree that will allow poverty to become a pungent memory instead of a way of life.

Before getting involved in TRiO I had no idea there were organizations that helped first generation students like me succeed in college. I think many of my fellow low income high school students could have desperately used support to just get to college, never mind succeed there. I grew up having to be self sufficient and learned early to take care of things on my own. Asking for help is not something that comes easily to me. Having people who are on my side, able and prepared to help me has been a surreal experience. I know being in the program has provided me with a safety net that takes a lot of stress and uncertainty out of being a first generation student. I can’t turn to my family if I have questions about college or want support. In fact, I have been actively discouraged by them at times. If I weren’t involved in TRiO, I would be navigating college completely on my own. For that matter, I wouldn’t be writing this application letter without my advisor’s nudges.

My goals after college are not going to make me rich. I’m afraid if I leave with debt I won’t be able to make my dreams a reality. Instead, I will be working to pay it off. I know if I can just make it out of college debt free my goals will be achievable, goals that involve helping others live better, more sustainably. At Evergreen I realized that while my childhood was hard, it also broke stereotypes about living in poverty. Research shows that low income people often eat a higher proportion of unhealthy, nutrient deficient food. I know from my own childhood that doesn’t have to be true. Cooking from scratch, preserving food, gardening, foraging, hunting and raising livestock can enable those living in poverty to eat much better. Realizing that many people lack the skills and knowledge that enabled us to be healthy and gave us more control over our lives in difficult circumstances has made being able to share what I know even more important.

Right now, even with my hectic school schedule, I’ve started a blog to share some of this hard-won knowledge to enable people to feed themselves better and live a more self sufficient lifestyle. I plan to eventually return home and teach skills that enable people to feed themselves well while at the same time give them a sense of pride, self sufficiency and confidence. I especially want to work with low-income families and single mothers and children. I dream of making a piece of land a healthy and resilient ecosystem while being a place that nurtures people so they can achieve their full potential; making that a reality fuels my drive.

This post is participating in the From The Farm blog hop, check it out to find other great blogs like ours!

Hand Pollinating Squash

2014-06-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it takes the bees and such a little while to find your garden.
If that's the case your plants that need some extra help in the love department might not set fruit. Never fear, with squash this is something you can take into your own hands.
Literally.
I'm talking about hand pollinating squash.

It's actually a very easy process, you just need to find a male flower and a female flower.

Here's a male one; notice it has a normal stem and one big fused anther covered in powdery pollen granules.

Here's a female one. The immature fruit on the base of the flower is a sure sign you have the lady parts in hand.
Hey now, this is a family show. Don't be thinking like that!

Now peel back the petals from the male flower so you are left with a little wand.
Be careful not to knock the pollen off.
Now gently twirl and rub the pollen off in the center of and all over the stigma in the other flower, that sectioned sticky looking protuberance in the center of the female flower.

Congratulations, you just made a baby!
bahahah! Bet you weren't expecting me to say that!

Now there are a few things to keep in mind. You don't need to pollinate with a flower from the same plant. You do however need to make sure that you are pollinating two flowers from varieties within the same species or else it probably won't work because generally the different species can't hybridize.
Sometimes even if you do it right a female flower will still shrivel up and fall off. Don't sweat it, at least you tried!

Look how much they have grown!

Not just the weeds, the squash too.

Now if you want to save seed that will breed true you can use this technique to control which plant crosses with which to prevent different varieties within the same species from cross pollinating.

A few days or the night before flowers open you can put mesh bags, such as these that are intended for produce ( I actually have these bags by the way) over the flowers to prevent insects from pollinating the flower before you have a chance to. You can also tape them shut or use clips.

Then proceed to hand pollinate; when you are finished cover or close the female flower again to prevent any other pollen from fertilizing it. You can remove the cover in a couple days.

If you find you have an excess of male flowers you can make delicious stuffed squash blossoms, you really should try them!

For your further reference here's a short list of varieties; in case you need to know who can make babies with ~~you,~~ yikes! I meant with who!
Who can make babies with who.
Well, that doesn't sound great either...
...anyway!

List of Cucubit Varieties Organized By Species:

~ like I said, this is a short list. If you are looking for something and don't find it here I highly recommend visiting Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds~

Citrullus lanatus

Verona watermelon

moon and star watermelon

crimson sweet

Cucumis melo

var. inodorus Crenshaw,

banana melon,

early silver line melon

Cantaloupensis (true cantaloupe)
Prescott,

var. flexuosus Armenian cucumber

hales best

Cucurbita pepo

acorn squash

spaghetti squash

Delicata

sunny delight

yellow crockneck

patisson panache juane et vert scallop

Cucurbita moschata

butternut squash
Kikuza
Long Island Cheese Pumpkin

Cucurbita maxima

Casper pumpkin

sweetmeat
Hubbard
buttercup
Lakota
Red Kuri (Hokkaido)

Lagenaria siceraria

long snake dancer gourd

Cucumis sativis

lemon cucumber

tendergreen,

straight 8

This post is participating in Share Your Cup Thursday, Green Thumb Thursday, From The Farm, Inspired Weekends, The Homestead Barn, Homemade Mondays, Totally Talented Tuesday and The HomeAcre blog hops, check them out to find other blogs like ours!

To Shave or Not to Shave, 'Tis the Question...

2014-05-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be horrified but hey, everything can’t be butterflies and rainbows all the time.
So here goes:
It’s been so long since I last shaved my pits or legs I can’t even remember when the last time was.
And the time before that was just as long.

Folks, it wasn’t just because it wasn’t swim suite season.
It’s because I decided I didn’t want to and I saw no good reason to shave.
…and a hundred people just clicked away…
Alright, now the open minded people are still here. Good, I don’t think everyone is ready to have this conversation anyway.

Those of you who know what college I attend will probably blame this on all the crazy hippies rubbing off on me –as if I’m not one already!
Sure, there are all kinds and degrees of un-shaven, un-washed, un-brushed people who are tattooed in strange places and sport hair styles and clothing combinations that might make someone not used to “greener style” scratch their head in pure confusion. I will definitely agree the community of unique awesome people who don’t make me feel judged made the decision easier.
I had only ever shaved because it was just what you did. I felt I had to, or I would be judged. That not shaving somehow made me less of a woman, less respectable.
I was afraid of being judged.
Shame was what brought the razor to my leg every time.

How is that healthy?

Why should I do something simply because it’s what society expects of me? How is it good for me or any other person if the only reason you do it is because you fear being judged. How did we get to a place where the totally natural hair on our bodies is a source of shame?
Not too long into my no shave experiment I wore a short sleeved shirt to church. After church I was talking to one of the other women and I saw her notice my armpit hair.
Wow, just wow.
Her reaction was instant and totally un-veiled. The look of disgust on her face surprised me, and then of course I figured out what it was about. But what really got me was the look that came after that and lasted. I had been judged and found lacking.
Ouch.
I instantly felt ashamed. I was confused by her reaction and by mine.
I kept thinking about the whole thing, turning the event over and over. If it had been a rock it would have been polished to a mirror shine before I was done with it.

Why did her reaction matter to me? How was a little tuft of arm pit hair worthy of such a violent reaction and stony judgment?
I realized I cared how people perceived me. I cared a whole lot. I cared to the point of doing things and worrying about things that are really irrelevant and have no impact in the greater scheme of life. It was all not exactly something I wanted to admit since I was someone who already doesn’t generally conform to societal norms.
So I considered my realization.
If someone decides to judge me, to make decisions about who I am as a person based off the presence or lack of hair under my arms and on my legs then I guess that says more about who they are than who I am.

I would like to think we can all be a little more open minded than that.

So I ask you, what are you doing, what are you worrying about that does nothing to benefit your soul?
How have you judged someone else based off something so trivial as the presence or lack of body hair?
Now I ask myself that all the time and I check myself when I find that I’m not staying true to my own needs and beliefs. I also am much more aware of when I’m jumping to a conclusion, when I’m passing judgment on someone based off appearances.
If I shave, it’s going to be because I want smooth legs or pits. Not because I’m worried about what someone is going to think.
Now, I won’t lie, there are still places I don’t feel comfortable wearing short sleeves. I hope that eventually I can go anywhere in a T-shirt without worrying what anyone will be thinking about my arm pit hair. I also hope that some day we, as a society, can rise above such petty concerns that create so many divisions and so much hurt.
I especially want all of my fellow women to take this to heart. I’m not just talking about armpit hair here; this is a much bigger issue.
Western culture has placed on us such unrealistic expectations of what a woman has to be. I want to smash those stereotypes, to obliterate them from the face of the earth.

I want a world were girls don’t look in the mirror and feel shame for their perfectly normal and healthy bodies.
I want it so bad my heart aches.
And the fact of the matter is that we are all responsible for keeping these false idols of feminine perfection alive by the way we judge and treat our fellow women and ourselves. Our daughters, sister, nieces, are watching.

What do you want to teach them?

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, Share Your Cup Thursday, From The Farm, HomeAcre, Inspired Weekends and Mostly Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Spray Bottle Citrus Vinegar Cleaner

2014-05-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

As you have probably figured out, I'm all about saving money.

Some of the ways I go about that without being the shopping dictator is by cutting down on food waste, making my own lotion, cutting out commercial shampoo ( so far so awesome! Don't worry, I've got a post stewing) and conditioner and replacing commercial cleaning supplies with simple, old fashioned ones instead.

Believe me, vinegar is a good cleaner.

Because vinegar is acidic (duh) it's inhibitory to many harmful microbes and encourages many good ones. With the addition of citrus and soap, which are both also inhibitory to many kinds of microbes, citrus vinegar is a highly affective, sustainable, kid and pet safe cleaner which also happens to be cheap.

Oh, and it cleans stuff, which is actually the point by the way.

The citrus cuts the strong vinegar smell that some people don't care for.
The smell of vinegar doesn't bother me.
Now the smell of pinesol, lysol and all that nasty stuff does bother me.

I like the smell of citrus though, and its a great way to use up something that often doesn't get used for anything.
Although you could zest your rinds to make citrus sugar and salt, or how about lemon pepper seasoning?
You can also totally use rinds that have been zested to make this.
I'm just full of suggestions today aren't I.

In the past I had always used just plain vinegar in a spray bottles for cleaning.
So I happily filled my spray bottle with my first batch of citrus vinegar and went to cleaning.

Ahhh the frustration of a clogged spray bottle....
My happiness quickly turned to crabbiness when I got one good spray out before the nozzle clogged up solid. I mostly use whole squeezed limes and lemons since thats mostly what we have, unfortunately that introduces pulp that's responsible for clogging up my spray bottle.

After a couple days of exasperation and shooting dirty looks at my useless bottle of citrus vinegar I got the bright idea to just strain it first. I don't know why it took me so long to realize there was such a simple fix!

What You Will Need

For the citrus vinegar:

Vinegar
     apple cider, white, or cleaning strength are all fine
citrus
      I use squeezed halves but you can use peelings too.
A non-reactive storage vessel, such as:
       glass or ceramic of some kind

A lid
      a regular lid wrapped in plastic, if you don't wrap it in plastic it can eventually rust. You could also use a tattler lid, but the rings get funky and it stops being leak proof, just so you know. A glass container and lid would be ideal, such as this one. It's just like the one I have for my sourdough starter, can't have too many of them!
.

Add before using not when you first set it to brew:
High quality dish soap of your choice
water, if you think its too strong

To make it usable in a spray bottle:
coffee filter or muslin or clean T-shirt (not washed with anything to leave a sent)
a funnel, strainer or culinadar
measuring cup or other vessel with a pour spout

Fill your jar nice and full with rinds, it doesn't need to be jamed in there. Room for vinegar is good. Cover them with vinegar and forget about it for at least a week, I prefer to leave it as long as possible, a month or so at least before using to make it extra strong.

When you are ready to use it just set your filter in your colander or mesh strainer and set that on top of a measuring cup or bowl.

Poor your citrus vinegar in and fill your repurposed, or new if you want, whatever floated your boat.
Cleans your counters.
anyway....

Add a drizzle of your dish soap. You can also cut it with a quarter part water if you think its too strong.

I use this as my all-around cleaner, for counters, moping, grease, windows....you get the idea.
Don't forget about the rinds! I use them to scrub bad spots on the counter or get the grime out of the sink.
That's all there is to it, have at those dirty counters!

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, Mostly Homemade Mondays, HomeAcre and Share Your Cup Thursday blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Lazy Early Riser Soaked Bread

2014-04-27T11:41:00.001-07:00

I'm just going to come out and say it.

I have been fighting with bread for all of my adult life.

There were many dare I say, barely edible loaves when I first ventured into bread making on my own. Once I got past that stage, for months at a time everything will be butterflies and rainbows then out of the blue I will have a string of terrible failed loaves.

Add in a few, ok lots, of moves and all sorts of different ovens and I've had my fair share of frustration and trail and error learning.

Through all of that I've come to realize a few things.
Bread is simply flour, a leavener, water and time.

Everything else is optional.

All the different techniques and ingredients are to give specific different loaves; but its all bread folks.
Just cause your loaf didn't turn out as you dreamed it would doesn't mean it's any less bread!

Bread making is a craft, an art form and you gotta be willing to eat a few ugly deformed loaves along the way to your dream bread.

Right now in my "bread journey" I'm just wanting to not buy any premade bread. I want to make all of our own bread so I needed a basic, un-needy ( no pun intended!) loaf that would be happy to dunk its self in soup, become a sandwich and still be good with just a lather of butter on top.

Oh bread and butter, how I love thee!

anyway....

I sort of messed around with some recipes I know work and this overnight, minimal work, soaked recipe was born. This recipe yields a dense, hearty moist bread that is ready for anything.

Why overnight and why soaked you ask?

Two reasons: letting is hang out builds the gluten fibers in the bread the same as kneading does but without, you know, the work. The overnight rest also allows the enzymes in the flour, the yeast and the starter culture to break down nutrient binding compounds in the bread that can interfere with mineral absorption and protein digestion. Essentially all grains, seeds and legumes have these compounds to a greater or lesser degree.
While eating unsoaked bread isn't going to kill you, soaking it makes it more nutritious. Considering that lots of us are mineral deficient its a great practice to get into.

Since I have a toaster oven I divide this into two small loaves. If I didn't do that it would rise so much it would be stuck to the ceiling of the oven, the many joys of toaster oven baking! Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful to have any oven all but I will be a happy happy women the day I have a real full size oven again. You can read more about where we live here.

Alrigth, I'm blabbered out, let's get down to business.

Lazy Early Riser Soaked Bread

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
starter culture ~ a couple table spoons of unpasteurized vinegar, yogurt or liquid from a fermented food. What ever you use, it needs to not have been heated in any way that could have killed the bacteria. Pasteurized, canned or cooked won't work.

Alterations:

~Sourdough loaf~
To use a sourdough starter simple substitute a cup of starter for a cup of warm water. Everything else is the same.
~quicky loaf~
You can omit the overnight soak and the recipe will still work. BUT you will have to knead and knead and knead! Between every rise and the flavor won't be the same and you won't get the nutritional benefits.
~ Flour~
Yes, you can change the flour up, as long as its wheat flour! I've no experience with gluten free bread, sorry you are on your own there!

Stir your flour and salt together. Proof your yeast. Measure your yeast into a bowl then add comfortably warm water to it and the bacteria culture starter. Let it set and get bubbly. Get yourself a spoon and stir in the liquid. Keep adding warm water and stirring until you get a wet elastic dough. Make sure to work out any flour lumps with the back of the spoon against the side of the bowl.

Now cover it with a floured towel, pan lid or plate- I don’t know about you but I’m trying to wean myself off plastic wrap. Let it set overnight or at least 8 hours. You could leave it longer but it will start to get sourdough flavors so if you aren’t into that kind of thing don’t leave it too long.

At some point in the early morning hours on a trip to the bathroom or when you get up, you will find that it’s doubled. Just stir it down and flop it around in the bowl a few times before covering it back up and going about your business.

When it's doubled again you knead it for the first time.

To get the dough out of the bowl I sprinkle a thick layer of flour on top and work it down around the edges. The flour keeps it from sticking to me or back on the bowl, then I just flop it out on the counter. I don’t knead for very long really. Just until it’s holding together and elastic. Add flour freely, the dough starts out wet so it can suck up a lot of flour. Now cover it and let it double one more time. After this time you can shape the dough into loaves for baking.

To shape, I punch the dough down and knead just until it forms a nice ball. Then I divide the ball in half and shape each half into a log by rolling it back and forth on a surface. You have to strike the right balance between floured and sticky to make the log elongate. If you have a different method for shaping or want another shape of loaf by all means have at it! Spray the loaves down so the dough doesn't dry out and let it double again.

Once its risen preheat the oven to 400°F. When it's to temperature spray the loaves down again, put them in the oven and turn the heat up to 425°F. The water helps prevent the crust from setting prematurely so the bread can rise as much as possible. When it starts to pull away from the pan and sounds hollow it's done. As usual I don't give an exact baking time since its going to be different in every oven and pan, but it's around thirty minutes.
Now, what to eat on your warm moist, straight-from-the-oven bread?
Um, everything and anything!
But to start you off, why not some lemon curd, jam, fruit butter or make it into a homegrown egg sandwich?
I'm just going to leave you alone with your bread now, enjoy!

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, Real Food Wednesday, HomeAcre, From The Farm and Mostly Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Apple Pan Puff

2014-04-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Some days, you just need something extra special to start out the morning.

Something beautiful and mouth watering.

Something to feel proud of when you put it on the table.

This is that kind of breakfast.

The apples are your only sweetener making this rich and just sweet. The batter puffs up like no one's business making it nice and light. This recipe comes from the same cookbook as the recipe my pancakes are adapted from. That book is full of awesome recipes! I cook out of it more than any of my other cookbooks.
As egg production gets into full swing we will all be looking for more and more ways to use eggs without becoming totally burns out on them.
Lets face it, you can only stomach so many scrambled eggs and egg salad sandwiches before the panic sets in.
This sweet recipe is an easy, beautiful change of pace when you are trying to eat up heaps of eggs.

Apple Pan Puff
Adapted from Breakfast in Bed Cookbook by Carol Frieberg, pg 103
Feeds 2 very hungry adults
2-3 apples of your choice. I like Breaburns, the book calls for Granny Smiths one of my least favorite varieties.
¼ cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour ~works with whole wheat or a mix or whole wheat and all purpose just fine.
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt

Preheat your oven to 450 °F. While its heating, cube your apples as you would for apple pie and sauté them with the butter until soft and starting to get translucent.

While the apples are cooking beat your eggs until sooth, then add the flour and beat again until smooth, add the salt vanilla and milk and beat once again, until smooth. You can try mixing it all together but you’ll have to be better at beating than I am to get a smooth batter.
Which you could totally be, just don’t rub it in.
Some of us are upper-body strength challenged, nothing to be ashamed of friends.

Add your apples to a large baking dish or if using ramekins a couple tablespoon to each. Spread your apples out over the bottom and poor the batter on top. For ramekins fill them 3/4 with batter or less. The apples might just poke out, that’s totally fine!
Now you’re going to pop that bad boy in the oven and bake it until it gets all puffy and golden brown, maybe around 20 minutes. To check you can poke it with a butter knife, when the batter is cooked the knife will come out clean.

Now, eat it steaming hot from the oven.
AJ likes to drizzle maple syrup over his but I like mine in all its naked glory. Although it’s most delicious hot out of the oven it's still tasty cold; I usually snack on left-overs at lunch time.
So there you have it, an easy, beautiful breakfast to use up the last of the apples and the new flush of eggs.

This post is participating in the HomeAcre, Homestead, Inspired Weekends,Real Food Wednesday, Homesteaders, Mostly Homemade Mondays and From The Farm blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Canning Chicken: A Horror Story

2014-04-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

I was tickled pink when our landlords gave us 40 lbs of chicken quarters. Sure they were store-bought CAFO or as we call it “concentration camp” chickens but it was that much more money in our food budget we could spend elsewhere.

The real problem was what the heck were we going to do with it?!

The quarters where frozen into solid ten or fifteen pound blocks, way more than we could possibly use up at one time.

I decided canning it as unseasoned meat and stock would be the best way to go. I mean, how hard could it be, right? I’ve canned fish and meat with my grandma before and it’s really not any harder than canning green beans.

Little did I know….
So I merrily go about packing the jars nice and tight and get the bones and skin simmering away to make some awesome nutrient packed stock. Ok, as nutrient packed as anemic depressed chickens can be, but I digress.
Boiled water, got the pressure canner full to the stain line, about 4 inches up the side of the pot, a very useful consequence of the water around here.
Filled the jars with boiling water leaving an inch head space, fished the lids out of their hot tub with a butter knife (not the best way to do it, this thing makes it way faster and if you’re like me and seem prone to burning yourself, it’s a must have).
Wiped the rims, put the lids on screwed the caps finger tight and back a smidge.

Loaded up the canner, brought it to pressure, paced the kitchen impatiently and then I started to hear things.
Things I had never heard before.

Coming from the canner.
This is where you have to make some hard decisions.
You can:
A) turn the heat off and depressurize the canner and start all over again to figure out what the heck is going on
or
B) hope nothing too bad is happening in there and maybe a jar just moved, and finish out processing time.
I went with B
The strange popping sounds continued even after I turned the canner off and waited for it to depressurize. When the pressure lock finally dropped and it was safe to open it the noises had stopped and I was hopeful that it just some very excited jars.
So… I took the lid off and peered into the cavern of the pressure canner.

The horror!
There were half empty jars and chunks of chicken and grease coated the entire inside of the canner.
Then at about the time my jaw dropped a lid shot off one of the jars and bounced around the inside of the canner.
Or at least I think that’s what happened.
As soon as I saw the lid coming off I started running toward the other end of the apartment, all of thirty feet away. You have to understand our place is tiny and banked to the walls so there’s essential a path down the middle of our “nest”. Of course the cats are always underfoot and when they saw me running they figured they needed to run too! Here I am trying desperately to get out of range of the exploding jars and the cats are right underneath my feet running along all excited like this is some big adventure. I seriously almost biffed it.

I know it’s hysterically funny, I even laughed at myself very soon after but at the time it was terrifying.

So I hung out at the other end of the apartment and decided that the pressure gauge must be off. That was the only logical explanation I could think of. It had to be reading much lower than the actual pressure in the canner creating so much pressure the lids were popping off. And, causing the jars to shoot chunks of chicken.

I called my grandma and she agreed that it must be the gauge. We stuck the lid in the car and vowed off pressure canning until we could get it checked out.

With the recent death of or second freezer in less than two years we found ourselves in desperate need of a functional pressure canner to save all the thawed meat. We took the lid to the county extension office and they checked the gauge. We were subjected to many quizzical looks and more than a few questions to make sure we weren’t poisoning ourselves. You could tell the ladies have their share of folks in that have started canning without any background information at all.
Not a wise decision!
Please, get a Blue Book , read the instructions for waterbath and pressure canning and find the right canning method, pounds of pressure and time for whatever food you’re canning.

Back to expoding jars, turned out the gauge was actually off, but not at the pounds we were canning with.
The kind extension office lady pulled out a USDA Tome of Canning to see if she could figure what went wrong.

Turns out pressure canned chicken expands.
Yes, remember I packed the jars tight?
You ain’t supposed to do that.
Fail blue book, fail!
It said nothing about not packing them tightly, how was I supposed to know!

So the mystery of the exploding jars was not mysterious at all just the expanding chicken blowing the lids off and shooting everywhere.
SO folks the moral of this story is get your pressure gauge checked every year and don’t tight pack your chicken (or rabbit or squirrel, so we learned).

The end and happy non-explosive canning!

This post is participating in the HomeAcre, Homestead, Inspired Weekends, Homesteaders, Mostly Homemade Mondays and From The Farm blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!