Every Flower Counts....and Ham Hocks Too!

I have this thing about wasting anything, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.  Maybe it's because I squeeze every penny until Lincoln gets a headache.  Maybe it's because I'm a packrat.  I dunno, but I try to use every bit of everything we grow.  Wasting food is just not done here.  That's part of why I have such a hard time getting a good compost going....all food scraps go to the pig or to chickens or to dogs....never into the compost.  This rule is especially true for animals that we raise for meat.  If there is any part that can be used, I will find a way to use it.  Often when we are butchering large animals, the parts that need additional attention get frozen to be dealt with later.  Such as ham hocks.  Actually, ham hocks, venison hocks, lamb shanks....all the same very useable portion of the animal when dealt with correctly.  I finally thawed out the last of the ham hocks from the last pig we butchered.  2 very nice pieces of meat, but if cooked as is they would be sinewy and unappealing.  To preare them the first thing I do is to start a cure.  I use a mixture of sugar cure and dark brown sugar with about a gallon of water.....

Mix until the sugars and salt has completely dissolved.  Then I add about a cup of my favorite pickling spice...

A big handful of whole cloves....

Gently stir the mixture and add the hocks....

To keep the meat submerged in the brine, I use a zippy bag filled with ice.  You can use a bag of water, but I have yet to find a zippy bag that holds water without some leaking....and you don't want to dilute your brine.  Since it is all going into the fridge...the ice keeps longer with minimal spilling.

Every day the mixture will be stirred.  I'll remove the bag of ice, empty it, refill it, and replace it.  In about a week the hocks will be ready for the smoker.

Next on my to-do list was getting around to harvesting some Chamomile and rose petals...my little Chamomile plant survived the winter and is putting out flowers like crazy so I'm harvesting them as they are ready...

As I harvest my herbs I dry them for future use.  Last week I picked 2 full trays of honeysuckle...

This morning I picked the last few flowers from the rose and a small handful of chamomile...

As for the birds, we've hatched another one of our blue meat chickens!  I LOVE this color and hope we can get more of them without sacrificing carcass weight....

And our turkey poults are growing like crazy.  They will be ready to free range soon....

We have 17 this size, and about a dozen or so just fledging size.  2 of our turkey hens have gone into the woods to nest, I'm hoping they bring lots of poults home with them once they've hatched.

Yea I'm Nuts Bread

I have been playing with a hearty-nutty-grainy bread recipe that utilizes some of the things we produce here and I've really hit on a couple of good batches I thought I'd share with yall.  Here are some of the basic ingredients... (besides of course all purpose flour-not pictured)...

First you start by measuring and gathering all of your dry nutty stuff......like Buckwheat Flour (1/2 cup)...

Flaxseed Meal (1/2 cup)....

Steel cut oats (about 3 T - these add great texture)

I have used regular old Fashioned Oats for this and it works well, but then I found this neat 5 grain cereal mixture and it works well too....(1/2 cup)

White millet....about 2 T of this....

And Sunflower seeds...be sure to get unsalted.  I add up to 1/2 cup or so of these.

The next step is to toast the sunflower seeds and white millet in a skillet until toasty brown...this brings out a lot of flavor and gives the nutty flavor to the bread.  Once toasted, set them aside to cool.....and be careful not to burn them! (easy to do)

Now to decide on the wet portion of our bread....I have used our homemade buttermilk for a very rich yummy bread...

But the newest liquid I've used is our homemade Dandelion Beer...

 

You can use milk, water, just about any liquid you want to try.  The most important thing is that whatever you choose, you will need 1 1/2 cup of it....and it will need to be warmed to about 100º F.  Too hot and you'll kill your yeast.....too cool and your yeast won't wake up. 

Speaking of yeast, you need 4 1/2 teaspoons...

Next you need sugar.  The yeast has to be fed once you wake it up!  I usually add a bit (just a Tablespoon or so) of a good quality molasses....mainly it adds a nice brown color to the bread.  Plus I add just under 1/3 cup of white or brown sugar.

Stir together your yeast, your liquid, and your sugars. The yeast should start to come to life. 

Next you need a fat.  Don't skimp here.  Use a good quality olive oil or better yet, salted butter that you've melted.  By using salted butter you don't have to add salt.  :)  If you use olive oil, add 1 tsp salt.  You need 1/3 cup of the fat of your choice.

Mix in the oil and all of the grains.....and add enough all purpose flour to make a good stiff dough.  Place the dough into a well greased bowl and cover with a damp cotton cloth.  Allow it to rise until it doubles.

Divide the dough into 2 halves and shape into loaves.  Cover again and allow to rise until nearly doubled.

Bake in a 350º oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Immediately remove from pans and place on a cooling rack.....slather well with butter as they cool.

Slice it while it's warm and spread plenty of home canned butter onto the slice....then just sit back and count your blessings!  This is heaven on a plate!

Once the second loaf is cool.....bag it up and share it with a friend.  :)

Springing Forward...

It looks like our turkeys are done laying for the year.  We've had a very good spring with them with about 30 poults hatched and doing well.  I cleaned the incubator this week, and reloaded it with eggs that should hatch our 2012 layers.  Our roos are RIR, but our hens are a combination pure RIR, RIR X Americana mix, and a single white leghorn.  You will notice that there are 4 white eggs...this is the first year I've tried hatching any of the Leghorn's eggs since she's crazy.  I'm attempting to hatch some of her eggs this year because she's such a good layer.  At nearly 4 years old she still lays at least 3 eggs a week, putting every one into the nestbox despite the fact that she has complete run of the place and spends most of her time out in the woods.  We'll see what happens....

The herb garden is coming along great...we harvested a few lettuce leaves for sandwiches this afternoon, and everything is sprouting up well...

Our first water lilly of the year opened today....I look forward to the first one every year and know that spring is really here once they start...

The wisteria is really beginning to cover the arbor that Bob built for me last year....

Here's a look from under the canopy...

Our brand new grape has several flower clusters coming up.....I'll be thrilled if we actually get any grapes this year!

And our Chamomile is getting ready to flower as well.  It reseeded over the winter and is already nearly ready to harvest some of the blossoms!

Speaking of blooms....the garlic is a bit early on developing flowers this year....I hope that all the thinning we've done will pay off and we get some nice fat cloves...

And nearly done for the year is the broccoli.  We're allowing some to go to seed, which we'll plant in the fall...

Staying busy as usual!

Spring Garden Highlights...

Our biggest gardening news is that we have enough garlic to harvest every day.  It's WONDERFUL! Garlic has so many health benefits besides the fact that it tastes good!  We have a patch of garlic in our big herb garden, and 2 patches behind mom's house.....

Obviously we still have a bit of thinning to do....

Our horseradish is making its' appearance after the long winter....I harvested a root and made a tincture with it. (there are 7 plants in all)

The most spectacular spring appearance has been the beautiful Joseph's coat rose......

I love these beautiful flowers that morph from a creamy peach color at budding to a vibrant pink when the bloom fades.

This rose is named after one of the most significant stories in the Bible. 

Also among the survived the winter is this little sage plant...that I thought was a gonner for sure....

And the big sage in the front herb garden has the most beautiful blossoms.....

We have planted a brand new grape this year, since my overpruning last year was the demise of our 4 year old grape.  This one is a Seedless Concord and it looks promising...

For years I have wanted to plant a fig tree....and this year I have finally done it.  It is over in mom's yard of course...far from the far reaching goatie lips....

The wild herbs are abundant this year and I've been gathering them......we've had small patches of cleaver...

And Curled Dock is abundant here.....I'm working on a tonic with curly dock, cleaver, dandelion, and nettle.

Of course our other spring favorites......Fiona...

and our keeper buckling this year....Frodo...

And of course no spring picture would be complete without our wonderful......World's Greatest Livestock Guardian dog......AEGIS...