What Are We Doing?

It is almost the end of January and honestly, there isn't a lot going on at our little farmstead. The chickens are starting to lay more as well as preparing a the other half of the garden for the next garden season. The waterfowl...well, Shelly is a goof and Lenny is like the responsible older sibling, always serious. So nothing new there.

Indoor Projects

So what is happening at our home? Well, since our visit to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill the weekend after Thanksgiving, I have decided to learn how to bake bread and be all domestic-like. I tried a whole wheat bread a couple of times and it was okay. It had excellent flavor, but it was really dense. THEN while I was looking at the Red Star Yeast website I came across Easy Egg Bread and decided to try it out. On Christmas day I made this egg bread.

OMG....SO GOOD!

I'm sticking with this bread recipe. I have made it several times now and it has been good every single time. The original recipe calls for the dough to be braided. Which is nice and all, but it's not very uniform and doesn't work well for sandwiches. The reality is that we haven't done much in the way of sandwiches...just TOAST. Toasted egg bread? Yes, PLEASE!

The first loaf I made

A couple of weeks ago I decided to shape it into a loaf and see how it turns out. Well, looky below...not too bad. One time instead of using the Kitchenaid to do all the mixing, I did it by hand. It was a little slower - especially incorporating the rest of the flower, but it worked out. The only problem I really had was that I didn't knead in enough flour into the dough. When I went to shape it after the first rising it was still quite sticky. I was concerned, but it turned out anyway. I now realize that this recipe is very forgiving, you have to mess up pretty good for it to not work. Every loaf has been nearly perfect and so good. What I have been thinking of doing is making this into rolls - maybe smaller hamburger buns. That would be so good! Maybe next time.

This would be a nice homemade gift for friends and family!

The Library

I have added another book to my very sad little library of farm-related type books.

Shaye Elliott is a homesteader in North Central Washington and has a couple of books out, with another cookbook coming soon! This book is filled with a lot of information. Mainly I like the book because of all of the photographs! Those photos...her family's farm...oh my. I swoon!

Community

We are getting ready to invite the neighbors across the street from us, to grow their own little garden on our property. With 2.7 acres we have some space to spare. I already have a friend gardening in the "inner sanctum" of the yard. The neighbors would be in the space that is between our "free range" garden and the road. We haven't used hardly any of the property for anything and we don't plan to add other livestock other than the pigs. Also, this will give the chickens plenty to do at the end of the garden season. I am hopeful that we'll have some neighbors take us up on our offer. There are details that have not been determined other than they will be responsible for constructing some sort of raised bed and they will have access to some things like water and basic hand tools. If I have interested people, I will come up with an agreement of some sort. I have it in my mind to us our property as ministry and this is a good place to start. We are all about making connections.

Farm Visit

On MLK Jr. Day we went to visit Cascade Meadows Farm near Sandy, OR to learn about the American Guinea Hog. We are very excited to have found a farm that has been breeding them. They are willing to share information and have breeding pairs, young feeder pigs and will even teach people how to process the pigs! What a great find! Visit their website HERE. 

Healing

I was sick earlier this month and had to take a few days off of work. This week I have been feeling not so great again. The congestion just won't go away. I'm going to make an effort to get to bed at a reasonable if not kind of early time. Hoping that this crud will go away soon!

It's hump day...the weekend is almost here!