Have you tried Kombucha yet?

I've been reading about Kombucha tea for a couple of weeks, so I was really excited to see that Food Renegade was hosting a giveaway for The Ultimate Kombucha Starter Kit! How awesome is that!! Click this link to check it out!

Squirrel hunting & an awesome recipe!

This image is from Scary Squirrel World. It made me laugh =o)

Its been squirrel hunting season for a few weeks now. I've been determined to get a few of them, especially the big grey one that sits in the tree out front, taunting me every time I come outside. He even followed us up the hill when we were running fence, sitting high up in the big oak tree dropping acorns around us. He sits and watches. Until I get the gun out. Then he starts jumping around, up & down from branch to branch, even from tree to tree! He is still taunting me, every morning.

Mr. Wild and I went hunting on the back of the farm and actually got 3 squirrels! I'd not cleaned one before, but was happy to see how its just like cleaning a rabbit! My next plan is to learn how to cure the skins and use them.

Here's the recipe we used (courtesy of The Wild Butcher From Field to Table book:

Southern Fried Squirrel (or Rabbit) with Gravy

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (We used 1/4 t. sea salt)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper (we used cracked pepper)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional (we used it)
2 squirrels or 1 wild rabbit, cut up
Vegetable oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
Salt & Pepper

(We had buttermilk that was getting ready to expire, so we added it to the recipe. After coating the squirrel pieces in the flour mixture, we dipped it into the buttermilk and then put it into the oil. Delicious!!!)

Makes 2-3 servings

1. In large plastic food-storage bag, combine 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper & 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Shake to mix.

2. Add squirrel pieces; shake to coat

3. In large skillet, heat 1/8 inch oil for squirrel, or 1/4 inch oil for rabbit, over medium-high heat until hot.

4. Add coated meat; brown on all sides.

5. Reduce heat; cover tightly. Cook over very low heat until tender, 35 to 45 minutes for squirrel, 20 to 25 minutes for rabbits, turning pieces once.

6. Remove cover, cook 5 minutes longer to crisp. Transfer meat to plate lined with paper towels. Set aside and keep warm.

7. Discard all but 3 Tablespoons oil. Over medium heat, stir flour into reserved oil. Blend in milk.

8. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.

9. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with meat.

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig ... a lesson learned

I picked up the meat from our butchered hogs yesterday. As I was paying, I told the guy that I'd see him in the spring. He said "so you guys are raising up some more then?" I said yes, that we'd gotten a couple more from the market. He stood there for a couple of seconds and then said "Ya know if you lay the feed to them you'll get a good bunch of meat off 'em. These hogs, they didn't look so good when we cut them open, you could tell that, well, they weren't fed real well."

I smiled and nodded as I exploded with anger inside. I told him that we'd bought these hogs from our neighbors friend 2 months prior to bringing them in. I thanked him again and left.

Now, I wasn't angry at the man for telling me the truth about the condition of the hogs. I was angry at myself & my husband for not knowing better and I was angry at our neighbor & his friend for screwing us! They knew that they hadn't taken care of the hogs properly & had stunted their growth.

When we moved here we started going to the auctions & markets, to see what was for sale & to talk to the other farmers & ranchers. We slowly started purchasing our livestock. We got invited to go to a private pig sale with one of the guys we'd met. We were sitting up in our barn a couple days later talking about going to the sale when our neighbor tells us that him & his friend have been raising up hogs & that they'd sell us a couple & save us some money. So we drove out to the friends house to look at them. We were told that they were babies, about 3 months old & that the big one was a great mama, was ready to be bred back as soon as a boar was found.

They told us how they'd been feeding them, when they'd bought the babies, when the mama had last had a litter. We felt like they were being really upfront and were truly trying to help us save some money & get started. So we said we'd buy them, but could we keep them there for a couple of weeks while we got our hog lot ready. They said sure, if we supplied the feed. No problem we said, we went that day & bought 200 lbs of feed.

The friend told us he was going to separate our hogs from his. Mr. Wild went & helped move them. There were 5 babies and we'd picked ours out. Two weeks later we went by & it was time to move them. The friend said he'd round them up & get them in the trailer so that when Mr. Wild got there, they'd be ready to go. They were unloaded as the sun was setting & everyone was hot & ready to be done for the day. So we fired up the grill, got some beers & kicked back by the creek.

The next morning we went out to feed the hogs & they are really small & thin. I asked Mr. Wild why they were there, those were NOT the ones we'd picked out. He looked at me and said they were loaded before he got there. He said he thinks we were given the smallest of the bunch, that that was why the "friend" offered to load them for us. He said "we'll lay the feed to them, we'll fatten them up!" That was the end of July. Our plan was to take them to butcher beginning of December.

A few weeks go by & we notice that they don't seem to be gaining weight. We ask if they'd been wormed, no they hadn't. So we give them deworming medicine. We're sitting around in the barn again with the same neighbor & he starts talking about how he's upset with the friend because he's just found out that the friend isn't feeding their hogs right, that he's letting them go days without feed. He says he wants to move his hog but doesn't want to make the friend mad. Mr. Wild & I just look at each other. We're new to this area, we don't know all the "rules" yet, so we don't say anything.

We go to market the end of August & buy two baby hogs. Our sole goal is to feed them through winter to butcher in the spring. In the 2 months we've had them, they have already grown larger than the original hogs. We feed them every morning & every evening, make sure they have fresh water everyday & all of the table & garden scraps we have. You know, common sense stuff!

Two weeks ago, we get invited to a hog roast. The neighbors friend has sold one of the hogs to another friend & its bbq time. Mr. Wild goes to help butcher & while the hog is hanging from the tractor, the guy that bought it says "man this hog isn't very big, where's all the meat!??!" The guy that sold it just laughs.

As I stood listening to the butcher talk about how to take care of hogs, all of the stuff that had happened was running through my head. I wanted to call the neighbor & tell him off. But I won't. I also won't buy another animal from him or his friends. We've learned over the last few months that there is a big difference between the guys that play farmer and the guys that actually ARE farmers. Knowledge is a big key factor in that. I'm thankful for the meat that we did get, which only filled the big chest freezer about 1/4. Lesson learned!

Hatching percentages

Mr. Wild was talking with another farmer recently about using an incubator and hatching success. We'd been tracking our eggs-in/hatched-out for a couple of months so we looked back to see how we'd been doing. The other farmer said he was having 10% to 18% hatch rate.

In August:
Eggs in = 111
Hatched out = 55
Un-hatched eggs = 56
Bad eggs/weeping = 0
Hatch success = (55/111) 50%

In September:
Eggs in = 127
Hatched out = 22
Un-hatched eggs = 19
Bad eggs/weeping = 86
Hatch success = (22/127) 17%

We had a few issues in September.

The first one was when one of the guys down the road decided to cut his trees and one of the branches took out the power lines. We are really rural so it was the next day before the power company fixed it. The heat & humidity were really high.

The second one was the temperature knob got bumped by the dog in a fit of excitement over a mouse in the shop (the old tack room in the barn). In the midst of us trying to get the dog out of the shop before she knocked everything over, we completely forgot about fixing the knob. It was 2 days later before we fixed it.

The third one was Mini Wild putting the eggs in the incubator and not latching it shut. Again, the heat & humidity.

So basically in September, most of the eggs were cooked. It was awful. The smell was terrible!!! In the process of cleaning it out and removing the sticky eggs from the trays, I had one pop in my face and spew foul purple liquid all over me. Mr. Wild started gagging and I dropped the tray of eggs, which then caused more of them to pop. I had to run to the house to get my clothes off and SCRUB the stench off of me. September was a total fail.

The one thing we haven't kept track of is the eggs that we've given to family & friends. Those numbers are in the dozens!

In October:
Eggs in = 197
Hatched out =
Un-hatched eggs =
Bad eggs =

I'll post these numbers next month.

When local government is way out of line - What happens in Vegas is NOT staying in Vegas!

This story Farm-to-Fork Farm Dinner Fiasco had a happy ending at the dinner party, but what is ahead for them? What is ahead for those of us who are doing the same thing they are?

Hatching out chicks

A full incubator.  I mark the date on every egg so I can keep track of "due dates"

The sponges help with the humidity inside the incubator.  The egg trays came from Cutler Supply.  The previous owner of the incubator was using regular egg cartons, this was allowing the water from the sponges to pool under the eggs causing all sorts of nastiness.  These trays are awesome!!

Some of our hatched chicks (ignore the date on the photos)

Brand new chicks drying in the bottom drawer of the incubator.

More of our incubator babies.

Goat introduction

Blue - blue-tick Boer doe

 Oreo - American Alpine buck

Cinna - Boer doe

Dirty Deeds - Nigerian Dwarf buck (soon to be wether)

Mad Hatter - Alpine/Nubian mix buck

Big Mama (back left) - Boer doe, pregnant; Silver (center) - Pygmy doe; Mad Hatter in the corner

Snickers - Alpine/Nubian mix doe with her babies, Sterling (front) buck & Fiona (middle) doe.  The lady we got her from said she was in with a Pygmy buck as well as an Alpine buck and she didn't know which one got her pregnant.  We're thinking they both did!  Sterling is much tinier that his sister and his face is different.  We're hoping he is a Pygmy mix so we can breed him with our Pygmy doe, Silver.

Oreo again with Heinz .  She's almost 10 months old now!

I need to get updated pictures of Stripies and our other doe, Alice.  Right now all the goats are on an acre with electric fence surrounding it.  We've only had a couple of escapes, mostly because the smaller ones went under it following the ducks!  We're working on getting our whole perimeter fenced with 5 ft wove wire with 2 stands of electric, it's a LOT of work!