Bees 2014

We lost our bees in late February or early March. Our fault, we didn't realize we needed to feed them this year.

He installed a new hive and Queen on Saturday (4/26). It was cold and rainy so we are hoping all goes well with them.

Hubby is planning on feeding the new hive starting in October or November to make sure they can make it through the winter.

You can see the feeder on the front. It was cold when I took the photo so all the bees are inside the hive staying warm, I hope!

Cleaning Stalls and Other Spring Things

Friday we cleaned one stall. Since we've reduced the herd by almost half we could leave the stall empty and let it dry out for a day, but with all the rain I doubt we will be able to. We'll probably have to let the buck and the steer in for the night.

We also cleaned out the turkey brooder. We bought 5 turkeys on March 22. They are growing well. We started them on Game Bird Starter and they are now on 20% lay pellets. When the weather warms up a bit they will go out with the chickens.

We picked up and packed away the feed empty bags that were taking over the barn. They are great for when we are weeding and need to send the noxious weeds to the dump. They hold a lot and are much sturdier than the lawn and leaf bags we can buy at the store. Plus, these are free.... sort of. We had to pay for the feed, but we consider it recycling. The best kind of recycling because it doesn't use any resources to break down a finished product to turn it into something new.

Here's the little lamb we brought home from Lamb and Wool Festival on April 12th. He was about 3 weeks old in this picture.

The lamb (Vet2Be named him "Stew") is doing well and doesn't mind hanging out with the steer, Dinner. We keep him in a nice stall most of the time because he's so small he fits through all the fencing!

Spring Gardening

Spunky and I were out in the garden today. We planted seeds in the house in February and March, which turned out to be too early.

She said it would be a good idea to keep a garden journal, so I'm back to posting!

The weather was nice. It was clear and cool, but not cold.

Here are some of the weeds that are growing well right now. I didn't see any puncture weeds, but they often don't start for another few weeks.

Redstem filaree grows on the access road all the time. Lovely little purple flowers! But it is invasive!

We're pretty sure this is Quackgrass. The animals will eat it, but it's invasive and hard to get rid of in the garden

Mallow weed. It grows everywhere! Not really harmful to the animals, but they won't eat it if it gets too big.

Bur buttercup, bad for the animals because they have spiny burs. This also grows in our sandbox, and we can't get it out of there fast enough! We don't want little kids getting burs in their hands, feet, or knees when they are trying to play.

Foxtail, this is one of the weeds that is 'dangerous' on the farm. It get stuck in animals throats when they eat it, it works it's way into paws and ears on the dogs, it spreads like wildfire!

Broadleaf Plantain. This one isn't too bad, but it does take over the garden if we let it. I'm not too fussy about the lawn, but it also tends to take over the lawn.

Shepherd's Purse. It multiplies by seed.... and one plant can produce between 500 and 90,000 seeds. It's everywhere!

You can find a good link to common weeds at the USU Extension site. There are two PDF booklets to download. We usually take care of the weeds the way the extension service recommends. Sometimes we use 2,4 D, most often we dig them out roots and all.


My favorite hoe in the garden is the Winged Weeder. It's sharp on both edges and cuts through weeds in either direction.

We tried vinegar as a weed killer one year. Although it knocked the green leaves out for a while, it didn't kill the roots. In fact, since our soil is so alkaline it seemed that the vinegar was a good fertilizer!

Spunky and Squirt planting. Spunky said that Squirt stepped on every single plant she planted! We planted celery, spinach, kale, and some onions. The weather should be mild tomorrow, so today is a good day to get some plants in.

Our lambs ear looks great! The bees love it, so it's planted in the garden not very far from the hives.

The lavender looks dead in the photo, but it's starting to sprout. The bees also love lavender, which is why it's also planted in the garden near the hive.

Yay! The peas are up! They've been planted for about 3 weeks and have just started to sprout. We planted peas two other times.... but the chickens got them right through the fence! This time we put up some climbing fence in the middle of the garden and gave them another try.

Egyptian Walking Onions. This is their third year and I'm sure we will be able to harvest and use them this year!

New royalty purple raspberries. We bought some berries last year and thought they were wonderful so we decided to try to grow some this year.

Hubby and Vet2Be extended the grape arbor this year. It works so well! By the middle of the summer it is completely covered with grapes and makes a fun play house for Squirt while we are working in the garden. We planted the celery on the north side of the arbor so that it will be in the shade when the weather gets hot this summer.

 

4Ever Recap Lid Recall

There is currently a voluntary recall on 4Ever lids. Since most people don't 'register' their lids or sign up to get emails from companies like this, I thought it would be a good idea to spread the information as well as I could.

Attention valued customers:  Please note that there is currently a voluntary recall on red silicon seals due to a higher than anticipated rate of seal failure while in storage when used in pressure canning and water bath canning.  

If you have used these seals for pressure canning or water bath canning, please check all jars.  Silicon seals are being replaced by nitrile seals at the customer's request.  For more information, please email us at 4wardindustries@gmail.com .   

Note:  The silicon seals are fine to use with lacto-fermentation, storage of dried goods and freezer "canning."  We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

I don't use the resealable lids but I know others do. If you used some (especially the 4Ever brand), please go check your seals. People that I know of are experiencing a 40% - 60% failure rate. It takes a few months for the seals to break, so now is a good time to check.

You can find the information here:
http://www.4everrecap.com/

Mini-Crock Pot Keeps Lids Warm!

My kitchen is a good size for our family. It is not huge, however.

Especially when I'm canning.

I usually have to play a sliding puzzle game while I'm preparing the food to go in jars. Trying to keep a small pot on the stove to heat the lids has been quite a challenge with some recipes.

I remembered a small crock pot I had tucked away in the closet and brought it out. I filled it with hot water and turned the setting to high. I put in the lids I would need for this batch of grape juice, and started the juicer.

By the time the first jar was ready to be covered with a lid, the mini-crock pot had the lids simmering nicely!

Here it is with a few small lids inside.
You can't tell from the photo, but the water is steaming and is keeping the lids very hot, even when I turned it down to low.

I will be using this little gem again! It saves me a burner on the stove, and I can put it in a spot that saves me some counter space for food preparation.

New England Clam Chowder

This is our favorite New England Clam Chowder recipe.

1 lb hickory-smoked bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled (save 2 Tbl grease)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped (optional)
1 BIG can clams (51 oz can. I use SeaWatch brand Chopped Sea Clams from Costco)
1 quart Half and Half
1/2 cup Ultra Gel thickener
4 medium potatoes, cubed and boiled
4 oz cream cheese softened in the microwave
1 Tbl basil
2 tsp salt

Drain clams and reserve the liquid.

Peel, cube, and boil 4 medium potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside. I use a 2 quart pot.

While the potatoes are cooking, fry (or oven bake) bacon, crumble or cut into pieces, set aside.

In a large Dutch oven, saute onion in 2 Tbl bacon grease (or use butter) until onion is translucent. (You can saute 1/2 cup chopped celery with the onion if you like celery). Leave in the pot.

In a blender, mix reserved clam juice with 1/2 cup Ultra Gel thickener until thick. You might have to adjust the amount of Ultra Gel to your likeness.

Add the clam juice to the sauteed onions and garlic.

Add 1 quart of Half and Half,  salt, basil, and the softened cream cheese. Heat until the cream cheese is melted.

Add the cooked potatoes.

Add enough Half and Half until you like the thickness of the chowder.

Just before serving add the clams and bacon. If you add them while the soup is cooking they will become rubbery (yuck!)

*****************  Notes *****************

You can add milk if the soup is too thick, or add more Ultra Gel if it isn't thick enough.

We usually serve corn bread along with our Clam Chowder, especially on Christmas Eve. This is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

If you have teenagers, you can cut down on the amount of bacon in the soup by leaving the bacon on the counter. They will come along and snack on a few pieces to save you the calories!

Bottling Rhubarb

Whenever I teach canning I always teach about canning small batches. I love small batches!

Don't get me wrong, I love big batches, too.

There are advantages to small batches which include trying a new recipe or being short on time or being short on produce.

Today I canned 2 quarts of rhubarb. That's it, just 2 quarts. I didn't have to get out my big pots, which is also a nice benefit to a small batch.

2 Quarts of rhubarb took me about 1 hour 20 minutes, including harvesting the rhubarb.

We'll be using this for pie at Thanksgiving so we don't really need that much. If I had more, I would have bottled more because the pot I used would have held another quart or two and it wouldn't have added more than 5 minutes to my time.

Here is the recipe I used. It is from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and is found on page 2-22. You can find the entire guide at the above link. It's a great canning resource, and it's free!

I trimmed the leaves from the stalks before I cut the stalks from the ground. You can clip the stems and then trim the leaves, but I wanted to make sure there was no oxalic acid backwashing into the stems. We've had that problem before and it was no fun!

Here is my pile of leaves ready for the trash. Here is a great tutorial on how to harvest rhubarb.

Washed stems ready to cut into 1" or 1 1/2" sections.

Chopped and ready for the pan. This is about 8 cups of rhubarb, which will be about 2 quarts.

Add 1/2 cup sugar per quart of rhubarb. Let it sit until juices appear. That will take about 30 minutes or so. After the juices start flowing, slowly bring the pan to a boil.

Quickly fill hot quart (or pint) jars with rhubarb and juice. Leave 1/2" headspace (that's what the green thing is for.) It's important to have the right amount of headspace to insure a good seal and prevent the food from spilling out over the top. I didn't have quite enough liquid so I added a little bit of very light syrup to make sure I had the right amount of headspace.
Screw on the hot lids and bands so that the bands are finger tip tight.

Since this isn't my normal canning pot, I use an old cake stand in the bottom of the pan to keep the jars from touching the bottom.

As long as the pot is deep enough to cover the jars with 1"-2" of water, you can use the pot for canning. I use my headspace measurement wand to make sure that the water is at least 1" above the top of the jars.

This is the pan I use for small batches. It is filled with water that is already at 140˚F.

Bring the water to a boil and start your timer. At my altitude, I process the rhubarb for 20 minutes.

Pull the jars out with a jar lifter and sit on a towel on the counter. If your kitchen is cold, then cover the jars with a towel so they will cool slowly and not crack.

All done and ready for the rings to be removed and the labels to be put on!
You'll probably notice that my liquid level is low. This usually happens when my water is boiling too hard as I'm processing the food. It was this time, I was out of the kitchen and when I came in to check, I had to turn down the heat. The only thing that will happen is that the food above the liquid line will discolor, there isn't anything wrong with the food itself. Since these will be stored in a dark, cool room and they will be used within 6 weeks, there may not be any discoloring at all.