Things we do with fresh peaches

Yesterday we posted the quick process in getting fresh peaches from fresh off the tree:

... to the point at which we've removed the peach fuzz (skins) and pits:

With the smell of peaches wafting through the kitchen, we decided that some fresh peach ice cream would be a good way to start consuming some of this wonderful fruit.  Tricia filled our little smoothie blender with fresh peaches and quickly pureed them into a peach slurry and then spooned it into some fresh milk and cream from the cows along with a splash of vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon.

Adding pureed fresh peaches into our regular ice cream recipe

We started a pot of Coffee & Chicory brewing while we waited for the ice cream maker to churn out some goooooood homemade ice cream.  It is hard to determine what goes better with a good cup of coffee.  Ice Cream or Pie?  Hmmmm...  We'll have to make a peach pie to determine the answer to that question.  I remember growing up using an ice cream maker that you had to crank.  Our electric ice cream maker doesn't require near the amount of work to enjoy a nice dessert.

Coffee and ice cream

My fresh peach ice cream was already beginning to melt a little bit before I started to eat it, but it was absolutely delicious with a strong flavor of backyard peaches with just a hint of cinnamon.  It is beyond ridiculous how much I enjoyed the first bowl and then the second.

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

We wanted to save some of the peaches for later use, so we bagged up several quarts of Zip Loc freezer bags of fresh peaches and froze them.  They'll be used to make cobblers and pies at a later date.

Frozen peach halves

When some additional peaches fell off the tree in the afternoon, I gathered another bucket, blanched them, pulled the skins off and took the pits out.  Then I pulled the food processor out and pureed all of them and poured the rich peaches into ice cube trays.  Once they were frozen I popped them out.

Frozen peach puree in ice cube trays

The only ingredient in here is fresh peaches and a dash of cinnamon.

Peach cubes

Once we pop them out we fill up a gallon freezer bag with the peach cubes and put back into the freezer. This will make many breakfasts.  We make goat milk kefir (yogurt) with Nellie's milk.  In the mornings we'll add a couple of peach cubes to the kefir and make some wicked good peach smoothies.  What a way to start the day!

There are many other ways to use fresh or frozen peaches and we're always looking for new and exciting ways to eat them.  If anyone has any ideas, we're all ears!

Pickin' Peaches

There is an old compost pile that borders our property and the next door neighbors. The ground is rich and fertile there and it is no surprise that some peach pits thrown in there germinated.  The old compost pile boasts several nice sized peach trees that yield some real nice peaches each year.

Delicious Peaches!

My neighbor taught me an important lesson about peaches about 10 years ago.  We had just moved into our house and he brought over a bucket of peaches from some of these very trees I'm talking about.  Except there was one problem - none of them looked edible to me.  They all had holes where birds had pecked on them.  Some of them had soft brown spots and holes from birds on them.  He told me something that has stuck with me to this day.  He said, "Kyle, those peaches are perfectly fine.  Just cut the bad parts off."  You know what?  He was right.  I would have missed out on lots of delicious peaches had I not taken his advice.

That seems like such a simple thing, but it highlights the myth of the PERFECT store-bought fruit or vegetable.  It is largely a myth.  In nature, most things don't turn out perfect.  Lots of produce from your garden may have bad spots, or are misshapen, or maybe have a spot that isn't perfectly ripened or gets bruised during harvest.  That's just the way it goes.  You know what else?  People are like that too.  There was only one person who ever walked this earth that was perfect.  Everyone else has "bad spots," but we don't throw them away.  Most people have scars from life that may not make them look or act appealing.  But we don't give up on them. The bad spots can be overlooked and we can find the goodness in people, if we look for it.  

Peach trees in the compost pile

Some peaches will be on the trees but many have fallen to the ground.  You can walk underneath the trees and the rich, sweet scent of ripened peaches fill the air with a wonderful aroma.

Ripened peaches littering the ground

Some of the peaches fall and are gathered up.  Others, well, we don't get to them in time before they are all dark brown and spoiled.  Others fall into the water or are devoured by the squirrels.

Fall where they may

Not to worry, the chickens like to eat peaches - especially the rotten, nasty looking ones!  We throw them all the peaches that can't be salvaged.

Chickens fighting over spoiled peaches we've thrown to them

This afternoon we ended up with a nice colander of peaches.  We wanted to go ahead and process these as there will be more on the way.

Colander of fresh picked peaches

It's really a simple process to remove the peach fuzz.  Get a pot of water boiling and drop the peaches into the boiling water and leave for about 30 seconds.  Then remove them with a slotted spoon and dump into a bowl of cold water.

Boiling water and peaches cooling in a cold water bath

In a minute the peaches will be cool enough to handle.  Simply grab the peach and pull on the skin and the entire peach skin/fuzz will come off like a shirt, leaving you a whole peach with no fuzz.

Removing the peach fuzz

Then we break it in half and remove the pit.  We throw the pit in the compost pile where it will grow another tree and keep the cycle going.

Removing the pit

Finally, we have a nice big bowl of fresh pitted peaches.  We do a little quality control on them, cutting out any brown spots or soft spots.

Bowl of pitted peaches

Tomorrow we'll discuss a couple or three things we do with these peaches once we've gotten them to this point.

Harvesting Rattlesnake Pole Beans

Rattlesnake Pole beans are an heirloom bean that I always plant and it grows great, climbing its way up to the very top of a 10 foot tall trellis I have made out of concrete reinforcement wire.  This is a very easy bean to grow.  With average rainfall, you'll be picking beans every other day.  The only problem is trying to reach the beans that grow up on the very top of the vine.

Rattlesnake Pole Beans

I've looked and can't seem to find why they are called rattlesnake pole beans.  Maybe the pointed end of the bean resembles the rattle on the end of a rattlesnake's tail?

A couple of beans ready to pick

They make a lot of foliage, so you've really got to look closely when harvesting or you'll miss some.  We've found that if you let them get too large, they get 'stringy,' but in that case, you can always dry them and use them for seed for next year.

Here's a little 'mess' of beans that we picked for lunch.  We'll cook 'em with some new potatoes and butter and there won't be much left for supper.

A mess of beans for lunch

We usually wash them and then snap off both ends and cook them whole.

Purplish markings on Rattlesnake Pole Beans

Similar to the Dragon Tongue Beans that we grow, Rattlesnake Pole Beans lose their purple markings when you cook them.  I was blanching two quarts of beans today and took a picture to show you how they change from green with purple stripes, to just a bright green color when heated.

Blanched Rattlesnakes

To blanch them, I drop them in boiling water and leave them for exactly 3 minutes before removing them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Then I'll put them in a labeled quart size freezer bag and pop them into the freezer and we'll be able to enjoy them long after the season is over.

MOOving the Cows to New Grass

As I talked about in earlier posts, we are a diversified little homestead farm.  I emphasize the word little because we sit on a 5 acre parcel of land.  That's it.  2 acres comprises the 'yard' where the house sits, but I've overflowed the garden into this area along with numerous fruit trees.  The pasture encompasses 3 acres and holds 2 mature Jersey cows in milk, 1 Jersey bull and 1 Jersey heifer, 1 Nubian dairy goat in milk, 1 Nubian kid, 70 laying hens and assorted roosters, a guinea, a peahen that adopted us and two dogs.  Those are a lot of animals occupying that space.  The growth of the grass is crucial.

It is for that reason that we rotational graze.  We probably don't do it perfectly as ideally you measure the height of the grass, the brix level, and there are formulas for number and weight of animals on square footage of pasture that determine when you move them.  At this point, I don't get that technical.  I have the 3 acre pasture broken into 5 or 6 paddocks and I move them when the cows tell me.  Of course I don't speak their language, so I just observe and they tell me in non-verbal ways.

Let me squat down to ground level and give you a hen's eye view of the pasture.  This particular paddock has been grazed for about 3 or 4 days and I've just moved them into the next paddock.  You can see that the grass has been clipped down by the cows some, but it is not eaten down to ground level.  You don't want them eating that close to the ground as they are susceptible to picking up parasites there.  Furthermore, the fresh, tender growth of the grass on top is sweeter, tastes better (ask Les Miles), and is more nutritious.

Moooving the cows out of this paddock

Here is a hen's eye view of the fresh paddock that I'm moving the girls into.  Can you tell the difference?  If you were a ruminant, you'd look forward to moving into this one too!  Can you see the flag leaf of the grass that is putting out seed?  The cycle continues.

Where the green grass grows

Daisy, Rosie, Bully, and Nellie watch me.  Although they are farm animals and don't possess what I would consider to be above average smarts, they know that when I walk out there and start messing around with the fence, that fresh grass is right on the other side.  Moving them doesn't require any coaxing.

Heads down, chowing down

In the late summer, winter and early spring, I have to supplement their diets with hay.  During those times their conditioning falls off a little bit.  Rains have encouraged the growth of pasture grasses and the cows are fat.  They spend most of their time in the cool parts of the day eating and their conditioning is one I would call - FAT.  You can't see their ribs and their milk boasts a very thick layer of yellow cream.

God is Good, God is Great, Thanks for the green grass on my plate, Amen.

The chickens enjoy clipping off the tops of the grass, too!

Sally and Daisy sharing a meal

I like this next photo because it illustrates rotational grazing.  You'll notice the poly wire cutting almost diagonally across the picture.  We use this to separate the paddocks.  A jump wire connects the perimeter fencing that carries an electrical charge to the lateral poly wire and electrifies it.  The cows respect it.  The paddock on the left has been grazed as evidenced by the shorter grass on the left side.  I've just moved them into the new paddock on the right.  It is kind of humorous the way they are able to contort their necks and eat underneath the wire for a little distance without getting shocked.

Grazed (left), Ungrazed (right)

I use some nifty reels that I purchased from Gallagher that have a locking ratchet to wind up and unwind the poly wire that separates the paddocks.  I have several insulators in different set places upon which to hang the reels  There's no grass in this portion as this is my low spot.  I need to get a load or two of dirt hauled in.

The Reel Deal

Finally, here is Amy, our little fat heifer.  She's in her own paddock by herself.  If we kept her with the other mama cows, we'd probably never get any milk.  We've been weaning her for a while and it may be time to put her together, though, and test to see if the mama's would let her nurse.  As they get older and try to suck, the mamas will kick them out of the way.

Little Fat Amy

The point of rotational grazing is to not over-graze your pasture.  Keep moving the cows to fresh pasture where there is fresh growth versus leaving them in one big field to 'cherry pick' all the best grass.  A good analogy is a bowl of mixed nuts you put out at a gathering.  You can take it to the bank that people are going to pick out all the cashews first.  When the cashews are gone, then they'll nibble on the pecans and then peanuts and finally the only thing left will be Brazil nuts.  Cows pick out the best grass first and so it helps to employ portion control.

You want to limit what they have available and let them eat what they want for a set time frame and then move them to 'another bowl of mixed nuts' at a later time that has 'cashews' in it.  It is a management practice that is good for your pasture and good for your animals.

Spreading Fertilizer to Grow Healthy, Green Grass for the Cows

Today, I wanted to talk about broadcasting fertilizer, or more specifically, spreading manure.

Whoa.  No, not that kind.  Animal manure.  This is not a political blog.  We like to talk about agriculture and family values.

I've captured below, for your viewing pleasure, a freshly laid, cow patty that is about as perfect as you can imagine that has just plopped from about a four foot height straight from Daisy's bottom.  This nice steaming pile consists of digested grass and water, a by product or waste from the cow's digestive system.  I want to show the cycle that occurs and also highlight the symbiotic relationship that is working out here on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

If you focus your eye on the center of the pie and work your eye upwards to the one o'clock position, you will see not one, but two flies.  This is important and I'll explain more about that in a minute after you gaze into this masterpiece for a while.

Cow Patty

Flies are attracted to poop, there's no denying that, but so are chickens, and that is a good thing for the grass in the pasture, the chickens and ultimately the cows.  Here's how the cycle works:  The cow eats the grass and poops.  The flies will lay their eggs in the cow patty and hatch out large, juicy maggots.  It just so happens that those are appetizing to chickens.  The chickens will use their legs to scatter out the poop, hunting for tasty morsels to dine on in the cow poop.  You can see that one of the hens and Daisy are eating together, side by side.

Working together - Teamwork

Actually we have a number of chickens that work in the sanitation crew, spreading the cow manure all throughout the pasture.  In a feedlot, you won't see grass growing.  The poop is piled so thick that it stinks and the nitrogen content is too "hot" to allow any grass to grow.  I don't have the time or stamina to spread all the poop, but the chickens have a vested interest in doing so.

Scattered cow poop, coupled with the sunshine and rain, provides a great growing environment for healthy pasture grass.  The cows will eat that grass and convert the energy into delicious milk for our family to enjoy. The hens convert the foraging from the poop, bugs & worms in the pasture to fresh eggs for us and our customers to consume.  Finally the scattered poop grows more grass, keeping the wonderful cycle going 365 days a year!

Remember that pretty cow patty we viewed above?  Well this is all that remains of it once the chickens have scattered it out.  Rains will further erode this into the soil.

Spreading it all out

It doesn't take long at all for the cow patty to be completely gone and out of sight... They've broadcast the manure into a wide circle that dilutes the effect of the round brown mound that's fallen down.

But the effects of the cow patty remain.  Look in the photo below and you'll see that the old adage, "the grass always grows greener over the septic tank" applies to the cow patty as well.  Look how lush and dark green the grass is over the spot where a cow patty once rested.

The Grass Always Grows Greener over the Cow Patty

You'd think that the cows would go and gobble that lush grass up, but just like you and me - they don't like to eat food from the bathroom.  The Good Lord has given them instincts to not eat near the bacteria and parasites that accompanies poop.  You'll notice that they eat around the dark green growth, but never directly over it. Next year the ground will still retain some of the fertilization from the poop that has bettered the soil.  By that time, things will have "cooled down" where the cows will be able to eat the green grass that will grow there.

The Circle of Life!

Vigilance

While we grow lots of vegetables and all sorts of fruit and other plants, the primary crop we're growing on our little 5 acre piece of land is grass.  That makes us grass farmers.  It is mostly Bahia mixed with some Bermuda grass.  The cows eat it up and convert the green grass to rich milk that has a thick layer of yellow cream on top. There are other grasses that will pop up and grow and we watch them closely.  Joel Salatin calls the mixture of grasses a "salad bar" for the cows and goats to enjoy as they do exactly as we do at a salad bar - they pick out a little here and a little there.

One thing we keep an eye on in the pasture is invasive weeds.  There are some particularly bad weeds that will crowd out the good grass and take over a pasture in a skinny minute.  We rotational graze and so I'm constantly walking across the pasture moving the animals from one paddock to another every few days.  As I'm walking, I'm careful gazing across the landscape looking for weeds.  When I see them, I walk over and pull them out by the roots and leave them on the ground.  The goal is to get them pulled out before they've gone to seed.

Today I spotted some bitterweed in the pasture.  Under normal conditions cows won't eat this stuff.  I have heard that if they do, it gives the milk a distinct bitter flavor, but we've never experienced that as the cows have plenty of other good grasses to eat. Bitterweed will take over a pasture if it is not controlled early. Below you can see a bitterweed plant growing in an ant mound in the pasture.  

Bitter weed growing in an ant mound

We have an infestation of fire ants and as I looked across the pasture I noticed many ant mounds.  A closer examination showed young bitterweed plants growing out of almost every single ant pile.  I have a theory about that.  I think that I've been successful in rouging out most of the weeds from our pasture; however, the ground holds a vast bank of seeds within it.  When those seeds that might have been dormant for years come into exposure of sunlight and water, they sprout.  My theory is that the ants unearth bitterweed seeds that may have been buried for a long time and bring it to the surface when constructing the mound.  Then those seeds germinate and start the process again.

That's why I'm vigilant in pulling them out before they become a problem.  I lay them on the ground and let the sun dry out the weed and kill it.  It is a never ending job, but one, if properly managed, that yields great results.  All I need to do is look across the road at a field that is overgrown with weeds in comparison to our pasture to know and appreciate the fruits of our labors.  Dealing with a weed infestation early saves time and work, because if you wait until things are overgrown and out of control, much more effort must be expended to get the result you're after.  I make it a point to pull bad weeds almost every day.

Die Bitterweed - Scourge of the Cajun Prairie

I guess this is not only a good pasture management technique, but there's a little parable in there as well.  We all have "little weeds" in our lives that must be dealt with.  Maybe it is a bad attitude, negativity, unforgiveness or perhaps a bad habit.  We must 'pull those out' every day while they are still young.  If not, pretty soon things are out of control and the 'weeds' will have crowded out the 'good crop' you're trying to grow.  Pull all that out the first chance you get to avoid more serious problems down the road.  Keep a watchful eye and be ever so vigilant for Bitter Weeds!

Penelope's Surprise

Penelope is the name that we have given to the peahen that adopted us.  She just showed up one day and has never left.  I was going to try to catch her and ask around the neighborhood to see if anyone's missing a bird, but I can't catch the old girl.  You oughtta see her fly!  She has a magnificent wingspan and can fly to the top of the tallest tree.

Usually when I throw the chickens rice to eat, Penelope swoops down from her treetop roost and dines with the hens.  They don't like her much, but she is twice their size, so they can't do much about it.  The other day when I didn't see Penelope, I thought she had moved back to her primary dwelling, wherever that may be. Russ told me, however, that she was on top of the goat barn.  You can see her looking regal below.  She's a very patriotic bird, just in time for the Fourth of July!  Maybe she things she's a Bald Eagle...

Patriotic Peahen

When she didn't come to eat with the hens and sat on top of the barn, I wondered what was going on and so I sneaked up to take a peak.  As skittish as she is, she let me get real close, for some reason and I was wondering if something was wrong.

Sitting in her spot atop the goat barn

She is a nice looking bird with a very fancy headdress.  One thing about her that is different from a hen is that she has long spurs on her legs just like a rooster.  I would think that she can protect herself with those things, but her first inclination is to fly.

Fancy hair-do

But then it hit me, I bet she's sitting on some eggs!  I read that it takes 28 days to hatch out baby peafowl. Do you know how many eggs a peacock lays in a year? None.  Peacocks are male and don't lay eggs. (Trick question)  I learned that a peahen will lay up to six eggs a year and only once during the mating season.  What a difference from chickens.  Hens lay upwards of 200 per year, but peahens only six. Those eggs are some expensive eggs!!

Penelope's nest egg?

Well, Penelope finally got up and revealed that she was indeed setting on four eggs! The information on peafowl said that peahens lay their eggs on the ground right out in the open and thus, the eggs are prone to be destroyed by predators.  At least she's on the top of the barn, but the nest is out in the weather.  Oh well.

Four peafowl eggs

What a surprise!  The only downside is this: I haven't seen a peacock in the area.  If there is no male these eggs will be infertile and won't hatch out any baby peafowl. What a waste.  Perhaps Penelope travels and has a mate somewhere that we just haven't seen, but I kind of doubt it.  We'll watch her and the nest for the next four weeks.  I read where peahens will sit on infertile or rotten eggs long after the 28 days have passed, so it is best to remove them if they don't hatch in 28 days.  We'll just have to wait and see.  Patience is, after all a virtue and we will report back on Penelope's progress.

Putting up Stewed Tomatoes

We have been harvesting several gallons of tomatoes every day and I must report that Tricia's concoction that she whipped up of grated lye soap dissolved in water and sprayed on the tomatoes is really working to repel stink bugs!!  The tomatoes we're picking this year are big and beautiful without the cloudy spots that the stink bugs usually leave on them.

Of the 14 tomato varieties that we planted, I would say that the top 5 producers have been Black Krim, Black from Tula, Big Rainbow, Pink Brandywine, and Money Maker.  You can see all the varieties that we planted by clicking Here! 

Homegrown 'Maters

Now Tricia has been slicing them for eating them raw with some salt and pepper. She's also made pico de gallo and a Greek tomato salad that has olives, olive oil, peppers, onions, and basil. But now it is time that we start putting some up.  First, we're going to can a bunch of stewed tomatoes.  That way, whenever we cook with tomatoes, which is a lot, we'll go to the pantry instead of the store.  Let's get going.

Tomatoes(of many varieties) all lined up

First thing we do (after shelling a bunch of peas in the background) is wash the tomatoes read good to remove any dust, bugs, and lye soap residue from them.

Splish, Splash

Then we drop them into some boiling water for 30 seconds.  It doesn't take long at all. This loosens their skins.

Hot Water

Pull them out with a slotted spoon and dunk into some cold water.

Then cold water

Then start to slip their skins off, coring them to remove the stem, hard parts and any brown spots.

Slipping off the skins

It didn't take long with two of us working to have a nice big platter of skinned, cored tomatoes all ready to go.

Almost ready for processing

Then we start cutting up the tomatoes in bite sized chunks, but you could really can them at this point whole, halves or wedges.

Cutting them up

We use a canning funnel to help pack the sterilized jars with tomatoes, filling the jars to within 1/2 inch of the tops.

Filling the jars

We add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the top of each jar of tomatoes.

Adding salt

Then we put the gaskets, lids, and rings on the jars and place them into hot water. Then we add hot water to cover the jars by 1 or two inches and bring to a gentle boil. Then we set the timer for 40 minutes and allow them to process in the hot water bath with the lid on until the timer goes off.

Processing the pints for 40 minutes

We remove them after 40 minutes of processing and because they are Tattler lids we tighten the rings down real tight once we remove them.

Removing from the water

We set them on cooling racks and allow them to cool for 12 hours. 

Cooling them down

After 12 hours of cooling, we pull off the rings and test the seals by lifting the jars by just holding on to the lids.  If the seal holds, we label the jars and stack in the pantry. If the seals don't hold, we pour the contents into a quart freezer bag and freeze it flat so we can stack a bunch of them together, maximizing freezer space.

Stewed Tomatoes

We'll do this many more times for the next several weeks.  Our canner will hold 9 pint sized jars per batch. We've decided that we'll do a bunch of stewed tomatoes and then will make some tomato sauce and salsa. Thank the Good Lord for a good harvest this year!