"Down on the Farm" Day Camp

""Down on the Farm" Day Camp hosted by Rocking A Sustainable Farm in Sandersville,GA                                                               

Come join the fun "down on the farm" as we learn to care for livestock, garden, prepare meals and preserve foods grown on Rocking A Sustainable Farm. Learn to fish, make cheese, butter, bread, and soap. Make a grapevine wreath and learn to identify native flora and fauna in the middle Georgia woods. Camp is for ages 5-12 and sessions are June 14-18, June 21-25, June 28-July 2, and July 26-30. We begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Each day you will take home something made, found, or harvested at the farm. Our camp directors, Paula Maxwell , B.S. Early Childhood Education, and Lori Archer, RPh,will use Georgia curriculum standards as they incorporate fun and learning into real life skills. See our website at http://rockingasustainablefarm.com/ to register online or get a printed enrollment form. Contact us at rockingafarm@yahoo.com or (478)552-8569 for more details.

Caldo Verde with Caraway Soda Bread

It's time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and shouldn't that include a meal with cabbage and some Irish soda bread? I tried this recipe for Caldo Verde on athens.locallygrown.net and found it to be quite tasty, the Caraway Soda Bread recipe was found at simplyrecipes.com. Both sites are terrific sources for recipes using seasonal produce.

CALDO VERDE (Portugese Cabbage Soup)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 onions, chopped
6 potatoes, peeled & diced
1 small cabbage, chopped OR any green available this time of year such as kale, broccoli leaves or chard
1 Quart chicken stock, veggie stock, or whey
1 cup white wine-(I used Schmitt Sohne Riesling 2008)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Preparation: Saute onions in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. In a large stock pot, add potatoes, cabbage (I shredded it in food processor to tiny pieces), broth, wine, salt and pepper. Combine sauteed onions with this mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 hour. Let the soup rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
**Suggestion** I would puree this soup in batches to let the potato starch thicken it and improve texture. My children do not like chunky soup. However, I ate it as described and found it to be perfectly fine.**
CARAWAY SODA BREAD
Soda Bread is basically a big, Irish biscuit. Or perhaps if you are from Great Britain, you would compare to a scone. It is quite easy to make, just remember to handle gently. Overzealous handling will yield a tough, unpalatable mess! If you do not like caraway, just leave it out. Some folks like raisins in theirs, instead. Here we go....

3 1/2 cups (1 lb.) of plain flour
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp caraway seeds (OR 1/4 cup raisins)
4 TBSP butter, softened to room temp.
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk

Combine all dry ingredients. Rub butter into flour mixture with hands or a pastry knife until resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the dry ing and add the buttermilk. Stir gently with wooden spoon to moisten. If it seems to dry, add more milk 1 TBSP at a time; if too wet, add more flour 1 TBSP at a time. Gather dough into a ball and knead VERY GENTLY on a lightly floured surface. Form into a round loaf and place on a lightly greased iron skillet or pizza stone. Make deep cuts from side to side (like pie slices) to help center of loaf to cook evenly. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then at 400 for 20 more minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Best eaten within 24 hours.

I hope you enjoy this St. Patrick's Day meal. We are having a fig cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Weekend Update for March 13-14, 2010

Harlan and I finally got the rest of the fence "goat-proofed" this weekend. We were able to move our two Nubian does into the newly fenced paddock. That leaves our soon-to-be mother Boer doe with the quadruplets as they are being weaned. It is hard to believe they are two months old today! Gosh,they are big already!
Mother Goose finally hatched a gosling--one--and it is a boy! His name is Hans Solo. Pilgrim geese are sex-linked in color, so that we can tell their gender at birth. Ganders become white, and geese become gray with some white tips on their wings. They are quite interesting to watch during this exciting time! Daddy gander is so protective. Two other geese are nesting right now, so more goslings will be arriving within a few weeks.
Our meat chicks are now three weeks old and quite grotesque looking, in my opinion. They are already quite meaty and heavy. These are Cornish X and Cornish Roasters that will mature as scantily feathered white-skinned birds. Definitely not raised for their looks! Talk about cankles!! Due to their unattractiveness, my husband and I have decided to choose another variety for the next time. However, they will take 11 weeks to reach slaughter weight versus 48 days with the current variety.
That's all for now....

Easy Lentil Soup

2 lb. dried lentils
about 3 lb. pork neck bones
2-3 TBSP dried onion
1 qt. V8 juice
1 cup salsa
salt
black pepper
bay leaves

Soak lentils 6-8 hours in cool water. Boil neckbones til meat comes off bones. Remove bones( and give to your dog or something). Remove any undesirable fatty or stringy pieces of tissue (and give to your dog or chickens). Add lentils and all other ingredients to broth. Add more water or V8 juice to cover lentils. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes or until lentils are tender.

**This makes about 1 gallon of soup for about $5. You may freeze in desirable portions for later use.**

Rotini with Swiss Chard & Bacon

Here is a recipe I made up last night. I actually measured and wrote down what I put in it this time! ALl of my family liked it, even the boys.

1 lb. tri-color rotini
8 strips of thick sliced bacon
1 lb. fresh chard
1 1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 large egg
1/3 cup pesto
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoonsful chopped fresh parsley
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Cook rotini according to package directions and drain. Cook bacon and reserve drippings. Cook chard in bacon drippings til wilted and tender. In a separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, salt, pepper, parsley, pesto and milk. Add rotini, bacon, and cooked chard. Top with grated mozzarella. Bake in a 9" x 13"x2" casserole for 30 minutes at 350 F.
Just for the record, I read that chard that isn't freshly picked can taste bitter, so be sure to use as fresh as possible (farmers market or from your garden). I used homemade cottage cheese, but storebought is probably OK, too.

Say Cheese!

As of January 2009, I resolved to feed our family as much as I possibly could from food we had grown, frozen, preserved, etc. Since I was out of work, the budget was my primary concern. However, upon being unemployed, I had time to read and I began reading farming magazines such as Hobby Farms, Organic Gardening, Morther Earth News, and I joined Georgia Organics just to get the monthly newsletter. The Market Bulletin published by the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture was also (and still is) a good read. In addition, I read cookbooks of all types. Poring over recipes for breads got me started on making our own. Now I seldom buy storebought breads. Occasionally I will give in to my grade schooler"s request, since ours is a bit thick for sandwiches. Cheesemaking was also something I wanted to do, so after reading lots of articles on the internet, I was convinced this was something I could do. Only problem, I didn't have a source of milk. I began learning on store-bought milk with some good results and some failures, but here is waht I concluded: store bought milk will make fine yogurt, cottage cheese and buttermilk. Consequently, I stop at every grocery store I pass when going to a big city, looking for organic milk that is marked down!! Believe it or not, organic milk does not sour nearly as fast as regular commercial milk. Furthermore, mozzarella cheese will turn out quite well from it.
About once a week, I make a gallon of milk into yogurt. Strained yogurt becomes semi-soft, like spreadable cream cheese and is quite good as a substitute for sour cream, too. Another gallon can be made into cottage cheese. I never ate cottage cheese before last February. It always looked gross to me. Somehow, making it myself makes it taste good and we enjoy it in many of the pasta dishes we eat. I can't wait to have some with fresh tomatoes this summer. Buttermilk can be cultured or not. Most of us know we can "sour" milk with lemon juice or vinegar, but cultured buttermilk is also easy. It just takes some planning. First of all, you will need some cultured store bought buttermilk to begin with. After you begin, it is perfectly OK to use your homemade buttermilk as starter each time, so don't use it all! Simply heat the desired amount of milk until very warm and bubbles form around edges of pot. Add the correct amount of cultured buttermilk for starte-(I use 1 cup per gallon of milk)-whisk in well and cover . Leave on counter at room temperature overnight then refrigerate.
One of the by-products of the cottage cheese and the mozzarella is whey. I have lots of chickens, as well as a couple of dogs and some cats. They all like whey. But, I always keep some in the fridge for making English Muffin Bread. It is terrific!! In the summertime, whey is good mixed with Kool-Aid powder for a quality soft drink. Who needs that expensive whey powder from Wal-Mart???

What's cookin'?

Last July, we had our two pigs, Chuck and Gloria, slaughtered and had 100 pounds of sausage made into link and bulk. The bulk sausage has been wonderful mixed with ground venison and nade into burgers, meatballs, chili, spaghetti sauce, or just about anything ground beef would be put into. The advantage is it is already seasoned. Adding the ground venison, improves the gamey taste of the venison plus adds enough fat to make it cook better.
This year, we plan to purchase our pigs a little later in the year, probably May, so that we will have more natural foods for them to forage, saving us the cost of feed. Our enormous garden usually has enough surplus and by products to satisfy the chickens and a few pigs. Anyway, May pigs will give us November hogs.
We intend to make lard again this year. I thoroughly enjoyed using the lard. I didn't ask for the leaf fat (from the kidneys) out of ignorance. But I can promise you there will not be as much waste this time around. I want the trotters (feet) for dog treats, along with the ears. We will purchase a smoker to cook them like the store-bought kind. Some of these parts seem like they would make great dog food if cooked with a grain like barly or rice with a few veggies thrown in for good measure. I hate to waste any part of a hog who gave its life for us!
In regards to the smoker, the bacon made from Chuck and GLoria was really good made in the oven, but my husband wants to smoke it next time, as well as the hocks, some hams, etc. I am sure a smoker would make excellent venison jerky and chipotle peppers, too. In fact, the charcutterie book I was given has many recipes requiring a smoker.
Forget all that nonsense about lard being bad for you. When has anyone done a study on the health benefits of Crisco or Snowdrift?? I firmly believe that a pig eating all natural foods has healthier fat than any can of vegetable shortening. So since my ancestors ate lard for centuries, I am certain that this won't kill us any faster than eating McDonald's food or frozen pizza!
Enough for now, I have work to do...