Fresh Georgia Apples

My Mom & Dad took a trip to Northeastern Georgia the other day and brought us back some apples from an apple orchard.  I don't know the name of the variety of these apples, but they were big, beautiful, and delicious.  Tricia made an apple tart that we quickly devoured.  Then she looked for another recipe and found one for Apple-Cranberry Crumble that looked interesting.  The only problem was we didn't have cranberries so we just substituted more apples.  It turned out great!

Apple-Cranberry Crumble

3 cups peeled, chopped apples (with the substitution below, it totaled 5 cups apples)
2 cups fresh cranberries (this wasn't in our pantry so we just substituted 2 cups apples)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup butter

You always hear talk about how Georgia is noted for their peaches, but let me tell you, their apples are good, too!

Aren't these nice apples?

We began to peel the apples.

Then we used the handy-dandy Pampered Chef apple corer to slice and core the peeled apples.  Then we chopped the apples up.

We chopped the pecans and mixed them with the oats, sugar, brown sugar, and flour.

We then buttered a shallow 2 quart baking dish and added the chopped Georgia apples.

Then we simply spooned the oat, nuts, and sugar mixture over the top of the fruit.

We preheated the oven to 350 degrees and set the timer for 35 minutes.

Right before we popped the Apple Crumble into the oven, we dotted it with a few pats of butter.

Butter makes it better

The timer will let you know when it's done.  The aroma will let you know as well. There are few fragrances like baking apples.

M-m-m-m-m-m-m!

Close up

Now the only thing left to do is get a bowl and spoon some of this warm, delicious dessert into it and prepare your taste buds for a nice, simple, sweet delicacy that everyone is sure to enjoy.

Apple Crumble

There's nothing fancy about this dish.  It is easy to throw together and cook.  To give full credit, this recipe came from the Pampered Chef "Recipes from the Heart" Cookbook.  Tricia, Benjamin and I gave it a 3 spoons up rating.

You can lead a cow to water...

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

This old saying essentially means that you can give an animal or a person the OPPORTUNITY to do something, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to do it.  Animals, and people, can be hard-headed.  To punctuate that further, they like to have free will - a choice to do something or not do something. We're faced with this every day.  I like to make my own decisions.  It appears that animals do as well. Just like people, sometimes they 'dig in their heels' so to speak and fight you every step of the way even though what you're trying to do for them is helpful.

In a literal sense, however, we have no problem with our animals finding the water trough and drinking from it.  Our current water troughs are four 30 gallon tubs that at one time contained a molasses mineral lick for the cows at the farm.  I also have a number of them under the drip line of our roof in the back of the house to catch rainwater.  I use this water to fill the four water troughs in the pasture that all the four footed creatures drink from - actually Benjamin does this and it can be time-consuming.

A good friend of ours approached us at church and told us that he had a water trough that he no longer used and was wondering if we'd have any use for it?  Absolutely! He brought it over the other afternoon and Benjamin and I were anxious to install it. We loaded it on the wagon and pulled it to the watering location.

New water trough

As you can see below, it is a Rubbermaid container so it's not going to rust and has a 150 gallon capacity. Nice!

It also came with an Automatic Float Valve.  Currently, when we run out of rainwater, we pull the water hose to the water troughs and turn the water on.  When one fills we switch to the other.  One flaw that I have is I don't like to just stand around.  While the water bucket is filling, I find something else to do.  I'd be guilty of being Pinocchio if I didn't tell you that sometimes I forget about the water and leave it on.  I've even left it on overnight and walked outside to find a flooded portion of pasture (and an inflated water bill).  This float valve solves that problem!

Float Valve to the rescue!

I'll show you how it works if you're unfamiliar.  It is an ingenious contraption.  The red plastic part you see below is the float.  The hose you see was just to get the trough mostly full.  Once it was mostly full, I turned off the water and screwed the hose into the "Trough-O-Matic" female piece that you can see at the top right hand side of the apparatus.

Now that it is screwed in, the water flows through the device and into the trough.

The days are getting shorter.  As you can see it was getting dark on me and my buddy.  With the darkness came hordes of mosquitoes.  We were anxious to finish the job and get inside.  One thing I realized at about this point, is that I should've ensured that the trough was level.  I'll show you why in a minute.

Almost full!

As the trough fills the water pressure pushes upward against a valve that will close off all water flow.  The picture shows that the float is almost in the horizontal position which completely shuts it off.  The water is only barely coming in the tank now.  

The reason you want to make sure that your trough is on level ground is that if it is not level, one side of the tank could potentially have water running over the side and the side with the float valve could be too high, allowing water to run and run and run. Fortunately, even though the ground wasn't perfectly level, it was good enough to not allow spillage.

You can tell that the water pressure has completely shut off the water flow.  As the animals drink, the water level in the trough, along with the float, will fall, allowing the water to flow again until the trough is full.  One thing that my friend told me is that once it is full, turn the water spigot way back.  There's no rush to fill the trough and if there is a problem with your hose or float valve, you won't lose as much water. Great idea!!

New water trough installed

This new water trough is a big time saver for us.  It has a plug in the bottom to allow for easy cleaning. Benjamin even talked about getting some goldfish to put in it!  Once we get enough rain stored in the rain barrels, we can turn the water off and fill the 150 gallon trough with rain water - it's truly the best of both worlds.

My Right Hand Man

In the Book of Genesis, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel was named 'Ben-oni' which means 'son of my sorrow'.  He was named this unfortunate name by his mother after a hard labor in which she ended up dying in childbirth.  Jacob renamed him 'Benjamin,' which means 'son of my right hand.'  Well, Benjamin is our youngest son and he lived up to his namesake this weekend as he was truly my right-hand man!

In an earlier post I was talking about how Benjamin was going to have to 'step it up' since Russ went off to college.  Russ really helped me out around the farm.  While Benjamin's normal chores include feeding the dogs and cats and making sure that the cows, goats, chickens, turkeys, dogs and cats have water, he was now going to have to gather eggs each day.  We also talked about how I was going to need him to help out in other areas as well.  Other Areas is a broad frontier, I know!

Well, this past weekend Tricia drove to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit her Mom and I really needed Benjamin to step up to the plate and handle the goat-milking duties that Tricia normally handles.  Nellie's milk production is falling off somewhat as it's been about 6 months since Annie was born, but Nellie's still giving a little less than a quart each time we milk her.  Nellie requires milking twice a day since we have her 'goat bra' on to try to wean Annie.  So the $64,000 question is:  "Was Benjamin up to the challenge?"  The Answer: A Resounding YES!

Benjamin brought Nellie into the goat milking stall and she jumped up on her milking stanchion.  First he closed the stanchion around her head, locking her in.  It doesn't hurt her and she doesn't mind.  Then, he had to remove her goat bra.  This contraption that Tricia designed keeps Annie away from her momma's milk so that WE can have it.  The apparatus also ensures that Nellie is dressed modestly around the other farm animals. (Smile)

Unfastening the goat bra

The next task is to clean Nellie up.  Animals like to lie down in the dirt from time to time and although we milk through a filter made with a muslin cloth, we still use a washrag to wash the teat area to ensure that it is free of dirt and hair.  No one likes dirt or hair in their milk.

Scrub a Dub Dub

Nellie sometimes gets a little antsy while she's being milked and stomps her feet.  We find that a little feed in the trough in front of the stanchion is a nice diversion while we milk her, so Benjamin put a scoop of Dairy Ration in the trough.

Breakfast for Nellie

You'll notice that Benjamin has one of Nellie's legs hobbled with a halter leash to keep her from kicking.  It is anchored to a cleat that I have fastened to the side of the stanchion.  Then he places the cloth-wrapped jar under one of her teats and starts milking, one teat at a time.  (While a cow has four teats - a goat has two.)

Got Milk?

Benjamin got the process down quickly.  He's a whole lot better at it than I am.  While I can really milk cows easily, somehow I can't get the hang of milking a goat.  In the photograph, you can see how Nellie's teat fills with milk as you open and close your hand and you simply squeeze it out. 

Fresh Squeezed Goat Milk

It really doesn't take that long at all to milk Nellie, but you still want to be comfortable, so we have a little stool to sit on during the process.  While milking our cows, we have box fans running to cool us off, but with the nice Fall weather, we don't need them right now.

Sitting down on the job

In no time at all Benjamin's jar started filling up with goat milk.  We make kefir with it and I usually have a goat kefir smoothie for breakfast each morning with honey and figs and a dash of cinnamon.  Pretty soon when Benjamin opened his hand, the teat no longer filled with milk, letting him know that he had emptied her.

Almost done

Benjamin is an adept Dairyman.  I was so proud of him and I think he was proud of himself, too.  He was a little hesitant about milking at first, but when he proved to himself that he could do it, his confidence was boosted and he felt good about it.

The Dairyman

There's something to be said about learning how to do something that you've never done before.  Doing the unknown can be intimidating, but when you actually do it and succeed, it bolsters your confidence to try other things.  Attaway to go, Benjamin , My Right Hand Man!

Beans & Peas Blooming!

We've been enjoying some really nice Fall weather lately.  In the morning there is a slight breeze coming out of the north and the humidity seems to be pushed, at least temporarily, back out into the Gulf of Mexico. You'll hear no complaints out of me!  Yesterday afternoon, I went out to the garden and spent a little time weeding.  The winter grasses have all sprouted and are coming up, threatening to overtake the fall/winter vegetables that I have planted.  I'll have to work hard to stay ahead.  The cows line up at the fence to eat the weeds that I toss over.  It's obvious they like the winter weeds a lot more than I do!

While I was weeding, I observed the many different blooms in the garden.  I'm decidedly NOT a flower guy. I like things that you can eat.  But in the garden, you really get the best of both worlds as many of the flowers from vegetables are beautiful AND then a little later they provide something that you can eat.  The first flower I'll show you is the flower of a Purple podded pea.  This is not a sweet pea, but rather a soup pea.  The pod is purple, but the peas inside are big and green.

Purple podded pea

These peas are vining peas.  I have them planted so that they will climb on a section of concrete reinforcement wire that I have staked up.

I like this next picture because it shows the full stage of growth from flower to pea pod.  This is the flower of a Ozark Razorback Pea.  It is a variety of cow pea.  We generally mix them with the purple-hull peas and another variety of cowpeas we plant called a 'crack pea.'  They are delicious served over rice with a little bit of smoked sausage for flavor.

Ozark Razorback Pea

This is as beautiful (to me) as any ornamental flower that you might find in someones flower bed.

A Garden Beauty!

The green beans are really healthy.  I tried to get several crops since the ones planted in early Spring, but they really struggle in the heat and dry weather.  Now that the weather has become more favorable, they are enjoying it almost as much as I am.  

Green Beans

In fact they are about ready to absolutely load up with blooms as you can see below:

Green Beans about to bloom

They have spread out and have filled in the spaces between the rows.  This is called "shading out" and this is a real plus as it crowds out any weeds that would grow between the rows and eliminates the need for weeding.  I wish all crops would 'shade out' the rows!

The first bloom of the green beans

I realized that the other day when I posted about harvesting speckled butter beans, that I neglected to post my favorite photograph, so better late than never, I wanted to share what became of some white flowers on the baby lima plants:

Three peas in a pod

Those flowers yielded a number of pods filled with fat little beans.  For some reason, I think that is a neat photo as it shows the simplicity (and awesomeness) of God's creation and how He cares for it. You can see how the Creator nestles three healthy, beautiful beans in a pod, protecting them from the harmful elements, while they are attached to their source of sustenance so that they grow to meet their divine calling. 

28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.  Matthew 6:28-29

Malabar Spinach

Russ worked at a nursery here in Jennings and really enjoyed working there.  He learned so much about plants.  One day he purchased a couple of plants that we had never heard of - Malabar Spinach.  Malabar spinach is a not related to regular spinach.  It is a plant native of India that has meaty leaves similar in texture and taste to regular spinach.

It is a vining plant that is not only edible, but a climbing ornamental as well.  We planted them in our garden and they have really thrived.  As you can see in the photo below, it has vined all the way to the top of the trellis that is 10 feet tall.

Vining Malabar Spinach

The leaves are a little smaller than the palm of your hand and are somewhat heart shaped.  We've harvested all the lower leaves that can be reached without a ladder.  From now on we'll have to get something to stand on to harvest.  You cook them exactly as you would regular spinach.  We've really enjoyed eating this new variety for our garden.

Vines 10 feet high and growing

After researching a bit on the Internet, I think the cultivar that Russ purchased for us is the 'Rubra' or red-stemmed variety.  Notice the pretty red vine below.  The photo also highlights the meaty, spinach-like leaves.

Red-stemmed Malabar spinach

The vines produce pretty pink flowers that eventually turn into purple seeds.

Malabar spinach flowers/seeds

I'm definitely going to try to save some of these seeds for next year.  This plant is a 'keeper' for us in our garden.  We like the way it grows vertically, the way it looks, and the way it tastes.  Malabar Spinach gets a two-thumbs up rating from our family!

Rosie's Due Date is Approaching

If our math is correct, Rosie will be calving somewhere around November 9th.  We'll have a lot of babies around the farm with Nellie (the goat) having Annie, Daisy (the matriarch Jersey) having Bully that still isn't weaned, and Maggie (Rosie's 2 year old daughter), having 4 week old Lili.  None of them are weaned and to be honest, it is like a day care center around here.  Many mornings we're awakened by mooing calves and bellowing mama's.

Last year around this time Rosie delivered a stillborn calf about 2 months premature.  It was a sad, but one of the things you deal with and move on.  We really don't know what went wrong.  So we've been watching her closely now that her time for delivery is coming up.  She's pretty fat right now and is in good condition. The last couple of days I've noticed that while Daisy and Maggie go out to the pasture to eat grass, Rose Ethel (Rosie's proper name) goes and sits down by the hay bale for a while to rest for a bit.  From prior experience with our cows, we know that toward the end of their pregnancy, they become lethargic and lazy. I guess the extra weight they're carrying is hard on them.

 Pregnant Rosie eating a little morning ration

Normally Rosie eats in the barn, but now that we're milking both Daisy and Maggie, Rosie eats outside.  We only have 2 milking stalls in the barn.  After Rosie calves, we'll just have to rotate them through when we begin milking all three of them.  It'll be a regular little dairy around here!

While Rosie was eating this morning, I walked around her back end to check to see if she was starting to 'bag up' yet.  Normally when the due date nears, their udder will 'bloom,' or swell and that lets you know that her body is preparing the colostrum and milk for the soon-to-come calf.  Another sign is that the vagina-area will sort of swell and become 'flabby.'  I didn't see the bloom yet, but I did notice her vagina area is swelling and I did notice a little clear mucous discharge, which is normal around this time.

The Rear View

In preparation for her calving, we've increased her calcium intake to ward against milk fever and ketosis - two complications that dairy cows sometimes get after delivery that can be quite serious.  For now, all we do is wait expectantly for the new arrival.

Lots of babies around here!  Stay tuned for baby pictures coming in 10 days or so...

Single Point of Failure

We live on the Gulf Coast, an area noted for its vulnerability to hurricanes.  Our family has evacuated several times in advance of storms and on other occasions, we've stayed put and weathered fierce storms.  We've incurred moderate damage in some storms and had virtually no damage on others.  I work for a Company that has personnel and assets in close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and over the years, we've gotten evacuations down to a science and have become very good at it.

2013 has been a quiet hurricane season for us, but in early October we had Tropical Storm Karen bearing down on the Southeastern part of our State and our Company evacuated people and assets out of harm's way. After such an undertaking, we always meet when the strong winds subside in order to determine what went right and what we need to improve upon.  Reviews like this have helped us become better each and every time we do it.

This year, although our process was excellent, a Manager talked to us about Single Point of Failure (SPOF). In other words, if we have one part of our system go down, it would doom the entire endeavor.  The point is that you critically think through your process and build in redundancy where it makes sense.  In short, have a back-up plan.

Photo Credit

I began to think about this.  While this principle is important when you have hundreds of people and millions of dollars of inventory in harm's way, it can also be important from a personal standpoint on a homestead.

Lots of times we're trying to learn how to do things the old fashioned way.  It is interesting to learn new skills. We also take very seriously trying to separate ourselves from the current fast-food, industrialized, worldly culture as much as we can.  Oh, we still enjoy many modern conveniences, but we like the "old ways" of doing things.  There's something to be said for the simplicity and honesty of the 'good old days.'  We grow most of our own food and try to reduce our reliance on the store as much as possible.

If the power goes down, we have candles, oil lamps, flashlights with batteries, etc. for light, we have crops and eggs and milk from our own land, we can food and dry food, have an inventory of food stored, and we have learned skills that will help us to do things the old way if the lack of power prevents the 'new' way from working.  But sometimes, many times in fact, the old way is just hard.  I came into the house the other day and saw Tricia grinding grain with our hand-operated grain grinder. I posted about this and if you missed it, you can read about it here: The Daily Grind  Grinding grain to make flour (the old-fashioned way) is a labor intensive deal.

So I put on my thinking cap and began to think of how I could help my wife.  I should've thought of this idea sooner!

Photo Credit

Electricity is our Single Point of Failure.  If the power goes down we lose all sorts of modern conveniences. We thought ahead and purchased a hand-cranked grain mill to make flour out of wheat berries, buckwheat, and spelt groats, as well as corn meal from whole corn.  To make things easier, we could always buy an electric grain grinder, but those bad boys cost in excess of $200.

How could I convert our existing hand-operated grain meal to an automated one?  Easy!  I pulled the hand crank off and found that the fitting was exactly the size of a 3/8 inch socket drive.

So I fit that onto my 18V cordless drill.  The only problem was when I pushed against it, it pushed the grinding mechanism right out of the grinder.  You can see I tried a rubber band to hold it in, but that did no good.

Improvising...

Finally, I enlisted Benjamin's help and he held the grinding mechanism in with a letter opener while I ground grain with Tricia pouring that groats in the grinder.  You can see that it was grinding the spelt so fast, that it blew flour all over the counter!

Now we're cookin' with gas!

The hand crank for the grain grinder laying on the counter.  As I was grinding the grain into flour, Tricia told me that I shouldn't use the battery-operated drill, but should use our electric powered drill to save the battery for power outages - good point.  I'll do that from now on.

Flour Power

So while we eliminated our Single Point of Failure (electricity) and have redundancy in a hand operated grain grinder, we can still enjoy the convenience of making our own non-GMO flour and cornmeal with a "conversion kit' automated grinder (and do it with a little lease elbow-grease and much quicker)!  And that makes my wife happy...

The Affordable Kale Act

At Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, we are very concerned about our healthcare. We try to grow/raise most of our own food and eat healthy.  We raise a number of animals that give us meat, eggs, and milk.  We grow a big garden that constantly yields healthy offering of fresh vegetables.  One of the things ripening now is kale.  Kale is known as the "Queen of Green."  It is truly one of the healthiest plants on our Planet.  It is chock-full of nutrients.  One cup of kale, according to webmd.com, contains 33 calories and provides 9% of the recommended daily allowance of calcium, 206% of Vitamin A, 134% of Vitamin C, and 684% of Vitamin K!  As such, the family governing body (me & Tricia) convened and went into executive session and passed The Affordable Kale Act, which mandated affordable kale and ensured its accessibility the the populace residing in Our Maker's Acres Family Farm Legislative District.

The Affordable Kale Act requires repeated trips to the Farmacy, but it is just 50 feet or so outside our back door, so it is not really a burdensome piece of legislation. As far as affordability, my goodness, the only cost was a few bucks for a pack of seeds and we'll eat on this until Spring.  I took a picture of Tricia (the Farmacist) at the Farmacy, filling a 'prescription' with homegrown kale.  (She doesn't always harvest vegetables with her pearls on.  We were just coming in from church, when I took the picture).

Tricia: at the Farmacy

She picked a nice, big, healthy bunch of kale...

She took it inside and washed it up and then put it on the cutting board and chopped it a little bit.

Chopping up some fresh kale

We dropped the wet kale into an enameled cast iron dutch oven and put it on the stove top with a tablespoon of butter and salt and pepper to cook down for a little bit.

Kale: The Queen of Green!

After a stir or two, the side dish of kale is good to go.

While we were out in the garden, we also picked a few poblano peppers and Purple Beauty Bell Peppers.

We sliced them up and put them in a skillet with a little butter and sauteed them for a little while.

Ain't that pretty?

After we poured the milk, fixed our plates and thanked the Good Lord for providing good food for us, it was time to eat. We had a nice Southern meal that consisted of peas over rice, kale, and sauteed peppers.  Tricia made some cornbread to go along with it and I'm sorry to say I didn't take a picture of it.  It was delicious, trust me.

A Healthy and Delicious Plate

There were no 'glitches' in the implementation of our Affordable Kale Act.  We also stayed well within our budgetary confines.  I'd like to say deliberations were met with bi-partisan approval, but we have one in our constituency that isn't a big fan of kale.  I think Benjamin will 'change his vote' sooner or later, though, after hearing some persuasive speeches from a statesman or stateswoman at our next Town Hall Meeting.