Invest in Nature

Nature is the foundation of our well-being.

If we nurture our land, like any other asset or investment, we and our children can profit.

After working and walking the long aisles of the big bazaar of Amazon.com with its tons and billions of goods (>90% from China) sold, I got to wondering about our investment in Amazon vs. nature.

This is a huge Topic, including sustainability, conservation, climate change, organic farming,
all which involves moral and economic choices.

I had to laugh at what people were buying:  bronze statues of sitcom anchorman, electric warmers for birdbaths and plastic this & that by the ton. No, we do not need this junk. We need to make better choices, take care of this planet we live on and treasure the resources we are given.

I intend to live with less, get rid of "stuff", garden more and be happy.

 

 

Hoping that 2014 will bring you'll joys from Nature.

Making Soup using a pressure canner

Soup, is perfect as the days grow shorter and nights cooler, it's time to enjoy the warming of a bowl.
Instead of grabbing high calorie "comfort" foods, grab a jar of your homemade soup off the shelf.
A pressured cooker, filled with quart jars, will preserve the soup for a year.

A few hours making homemade soup, using a pressure cooker, will pay off when your home
late and hungry. Just heat and enjoy a delicious cup full of nutrients, flavor and fiber.
This homemade soup recipe has lots of fiber from the peas, beans and sweet potatoes.

Jars of Goodness
ready to be opened and heated
when your short on time.

Recipe

1 cup of dried peas
1 cup of dried navy beans
2 white sweet potatoes
4 carrots
greens, parsley, kale
bay leaf
homemade chicken stock
S & P
spices, thyme, garlic
water

soak white beans in water overnight.
in morning, drain beans, add all ingredients to stock pot
and additional water. keep warm, while sterilizing canning jars.
Follow canning directions using pressure canner.
Add bits of meat if desired.

This delicious soup
can be your dinner
when short on time,
by grabbing a jar off your shelf.
 

 

Ball: a good reference and recipe book
for all canning & preserving

 

 

HEY!, Hay is for horses.

Its the time of year to gather Hay.

Hay is not just for the horses; all the animals use the hay.

Horses eat the most hay.
Goats waste the hay.
Chickens lay eggs on the hay.
Dogs make a bed of the hay.
Deer nibble on the hay.
Cats warm themselves laying on the hay in the barn.
I mulch the hay.

Hauling the hay from field to farm.

Tightly rolled grass for all the animals.

Goats  nibbling the best hay in the middle of the roll.

Hay, a good crop for all.

November Foods

Back in the Kitchen again, after living outside for the summer.

Topping the food list this month is the last of the garden harvest:

• Pumpkins
• winter squash
• sweet potatoes
• Irish potatoes
• winter greens: collards, kale, mustard greens and lettuce
• onions

All these foods will provide much needed nutrients for our busy bodies.
These foods will keep over the winter months.
The pumpkins, squash, onions and potatoes are kept cool and dry out in the garden shed all winter.
The greens will keep out in the garden until January, here in our zone 6.

You've heard an apple a day will keep the doctor a way?  Try adding these colorful green & orange foods a day to keep the doctor away!


Back in the kitchen, oven on, baking the winter squash and steaming the greens.

A bunch of Chard



A row of Winter greens

Winter squash
full of vitamins A & C
antioxidants
fiber
and flavor

 

Time to Sit

With the garden chores coming to an end, there is more time to just sit.
No more hoeing, deadheading or watering as the winter rains have begun.
Time, and lots of it, to think, plan and hopefully create and read.
Got the garden chair, but that won't do for more sitting.
Got the garden beds, but that won't do for relaxing.
What about a bed, out in the garden, to lay on and contemplate, and perhaps bring on more
gardening inspirations? a bed outside with pillows, quilts and piles of books.
Off to the local antique auctions to hunt for and bid on a bed for the garden shed.
A quiet place to hibernate.

A Garden Bed
 

The antique iron bed was found.
 

A back yard retreat
to RELAX
 

All I need is a mattress, quilts, pillows, pile of books and I'm out of here, GONE.

Wake me when it is Spring!

Where Bucks GO.......

Where do deer go.....
read Deuteronomy 12....

Our whitetail bucks go to Hunting Preserves.
Hunters stay at a lodge and go out on daily expeditions with a guide to find their buck.
The Hunts are fair chase in the wilderness of  300 acres more or less.
Whitetail bucks are free roaming among the hills, valleys, forests and meadows.
This provides an amazing experience when two people, from opposite lifestyles i.e.
hunting guide and city person, come together to hunt for a buck.
The city person will have an memorable experience of a lifetime:
hunting, taking home 200# of fresh venison and an antler rack for their wall and most important a memorable experience.



Gayleen and Brenda
loaded Bucks onto the trailer
to go to the
Hunting Preserve


 

www.kyantlerco.com

www.facebook.com/kyantlercompany

 

Big Buck

lots of fresh venison

antler rack for wall

&
2 happy hunters


 



Food in Jars

My Pantry with Glass Jars of Food.

 

A cupboard today

 

Glass jars  > plastic.
Why not plastic? Start with petrochemicals, then move on to estrogenic chemicals and endocrine disruptor's, you get the picture, why I choose glass.
Glass has been used for thousands of years with no health concerns while plastic has many concerns affecting our health.








A Pantry from the late 1800's










 

Grains & Granola kept in jars.
 

Glass allows the food colors and textures to show. It no wonder we've progressed from open shelving to cupboards allowing us to hide all that junk food and plastic from view.






Injun Summer

 

 

  

 

Prints & Injun story by: John McCutcheon
 

This time of year all the homesick Injuns come back to play.

Their spirits do.

You can see them across the fields, in the haze.

Smell their fires & pipes a-going.

Hear them rustling and creeping among the leaves.

 

Love this time of year.

 

Our last major project is complete!

Now we rest and enjoy this time of year.

Start up the bonfire and see off yonder the Injuns marching and dancing.

Before shot of the tunnel ride down the dirt road to the fields.
 

Same shot after the dozer came through
Now the combine can get to the fields.

 

Enjoy relaxing in Injun Summer, smelling their pipes a-go 'in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Chestnuts

A bowl full of Chestnuts from the spiny burs.
The chestnuts came from our grove down by the river.
The chestnut is the only nut that has vitamin C.


 

We stumbled upon an undiscovered grove of American Chestnut trees down by the river.
This is epic!, because the American Chestnut tree is extremely rare due to a blight that killed this mighty giant of a tree. The loss of the American Chestnut was an environmental disaster since this tree occupied 25% of Eastern Forests.

Chestnuts that are planted today are either Chinese or European.

We are going to cut a twig with leaves and send it off for testing and confirmation to determine if our discovery is the American Chestnut.

Oil painting of Chestnut tree by:
Vincent van Gogh
 

 

The Chestnuts that are found in stores are imported. Hopefully in another 100 years, our Eastern forest floors will again be covered with chestnuts for all to enjoy.




P.S. The American Chestnut Foundation confirmed that our chestnut tree is a Chinese variety.
Of course, isn't mostly everything these days "Chinese". 
We figure the "hippies" that once upon a time ~ 50 years ago homesteaded our land and probably planted the Chinese chestnut trees near their hand dug water well.
The well and the trees remain, but the "hippies" were run off by the locals.
That is another story.

 

 

Pumpkin, a true american vegetable

A Pumpkin pick'n day.
The seed was from  www.superseeds.com 
a variety called: Spookie, a smaller size pumpkin with very good yields per vine.


Took a few pumpkins into the kitchen to turn them into:

making pumpkin pulp
 

Pumpkin seeds and pulp.






Roasted Pepitas  (pumpkin seeds)


Cajun spiced Pepitas

 

Pumpkin Cake


Pumpkin Cake with hazelnuts
 

Pickled pumpkin rind.  The recipe did not seem to sound as good as the name,
so I gave all the rind to the chickens.

The cooked pulp became
a bowl full of delicious squash.


Pumpkin squash
with added butter & maple syrup
 

Didn't know these Spookies could taste soo good!

 

Lilies

a Chinese proverb:   if you have 2 loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily


Lilies (not day lily) are a favorite flower, especially as a cut flower for vases. The flower will last for a good week in a vase.
A lily is not the common day lily.  Lilies have 6 petals and grow on one main stem.  Day lilies have 2 layers of petals and grow as a clump.
Lilies flower from May until mid-August; what other flower can do that?

trumpet lily

Black Beauty Lily

Some good sources to get lilies:

www.thelilygarden.com
www.bdlilies.com
www.mzbulb.com
www.johnscheepers.com
Fall is the best time to plant the lily bulbs.




Lilies rule!



 

The Fruit of our Labor!

The Fruits we do not eat,  we drink!
They are fermented into Wine.

Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. We had loads of berries this year.
I harvest, clean and bag them to freeze until able to ferment into wine.


Pouring the blueberry,
blackberry on left
strawberry on right

These Wines are not the sickeningly sweet wines of the 70's, ie., Boone's Farm, they are surprisingly dry with subtle fruit flavor.  Instead of watching the fruit rot on the bush, preserve it--ferment it--add value to it--
Drink up and enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Blessing and prosperity will be yours.....Psalm 128:2

Our Whitetails 2013

View our 2013 Whitetail Bucks.
We've purposely selected for a typical antler, as found in the wild.

Their antlers have been growing since March. The antlers grow for about 5 months
ending in August when the growing slows and the velvet covering is shed in September.

The photos were taken in August just before their growth stopped.

The above photos are the 10 point bucks we've bred.

                                          The monster look from most breeders of whitetails.

What look do you like?

The Bounty

This year I kept a list of what and how much came out of the garden.
Then I went to the local grocery store and got their prices. (conventional price, not organic)
Then I multiplied their price by my bounty.

The bottom line to purchase is: $ 1285.00        
                     
This is what I would of paid to buy the bounty.
My bounty is organic, not from California or Mexico, not weeks old, and not covered in chemicals.
The organic purchase price is quite a bit more. Since I figured the conventional price, the difference between organic and conventional would more than cover the cost of potting soil, seeds, canning and electric.

All food from the gardens was included, from the Spring greens and scallions and garlic to the late season corn, tomatoes and beets.
Also included were the value added canning. Turning the fresh tomatoes into salsa and spaghetti sauce, raspberries into jam and cucumbers into pickles.
Food was also frozen, ie., cabbage into cabbage rolls, chopped onions and peppers, and frozen broccoli.
Not included was all the fruit (blackberries, blueberries and strawberries) made into wine and the fresh cut flowers for the house.

The important message here, is not the cost or the savings but the veggies, brought to the table, every day, fresh from the garden.  Here is to your Health  !!!  &  vegetable gardens !!!

         "To dig & delve in nice clean dirt can do a mortal little hurt and save a ton of cash"
                
Almost forgot those potatoes, irish & sweet, hiding in the dirt, so I'll add a few more dollars to the
bottom line.

What is the Dumbest Farm Animal?

We all know it is not the dog or the pig.

It could be the cow, duck, chicken, sheep, goat, turkey, guinea or horse.
At one time or another I've cared for many types of animals from injured wild bunnies and guinea pigs,
when I was young, to whitetail bucks now.
Many people think cows are the dumbest, cause they kinda look that way and move slow.
I've seen calves get over a 8 foot fence to escape a wild bear. Not dumb.
Ducks and guinea hens can care for themselves, with no feed or watering needed, and they fly to escape danger. Chickens are much the same way, except maybe a little slower, excitable and flightier.
Sheep are one livestock, I don't have much experience with. Now, I do remember having a black ram that became delicious grilled lamb chops. The more I think of him, this ram, with his curled horns,
went after the bucks with their pointed antlers. The Bible says: "helpless like a sheep and lost sheep", but the black ram stood his ground in the deer pens and survived until he was large enough to haul away to the butcher.
Goats always get their horns stuck in the wire fence-time after time. Donald got the little Billy out of the fence wire 8 x in one day. You'd think that after 1 or 2 times they'd figure it out..........
Lately I have been moving my nanny goats from their main pen to the front pasture for fresh grass.
I go to the gate with a bucket of corn cobs and expect to see them waiting for me. They are around the corner and can not seem to figure out how to get to the gate. Now, they have been to the gate
hundreds of times. I have to walk into the pen and literally lead them, by their collar, out to the gate!
Every morning!
So, GOATS, are the dumbest.
Maybe because they ram each other on their heads. 
Maybe I am the dumbest, cause I have to go get their heads unstuck and lead them, time after time.
Maybe they like the attention and got me trained.
The dumbest farm animal isn't a cow, a goat or a chicken. As it turns out, the dumbest on the farm
is probably me.

Farmers need to pay attention to what their animals are telling them,
And to be a great farmer, we must try listen to the animals. :)

Nubian goats with their floppy ears.

Encore Career

After 10 years of controlling Air Traffic, 18 years of education and another 8 years in health care, why leave the money and many perks to work at a fraction of the money and no recognition?

It is because while I was at work all those years, my mind was elsewhere, outside, making lists, planning my next years garden, not liking all those bills and wearing those nylons, and thinking what else I could be doing. It wasn't weakness or selfishness that led me to leave health care, but self-preservation. I did not have the stamina to "do it all", or the single-mindedness some have to just "go to work".  Not blaming the health care system and its flaws, leaving was the best opt out for me.

My encore career, a second career, really its my third career, is in farming.
It works for me; more happiness, less stress, more control by getting up in the morning when I awake and deciding what to do after considerable thought, better quality of life, more satisfaction, instant gratification and time for creativity.

Farming? is a natural outlet for women and mothers to provide the most healthy food for their family.
Globally, women have been farmers and now the U.S. is trying to catch up, as 30% of all U.S. farms are operated by women.



It is a miracle the abundance
a garden
can produce.



What do I love about my encore career?   Everything!  Dirt, work, sweat and all the free time in between
that allows one to create.



Wild food found on the Farm

Wild Food is all around us.
Food can be foraged in the woods, along the fences, near the creek, down in the pastures,
at the edge of the forest and in the front yard.

Here is a list of wild food I've found, and have eaten, on the Farm
(just gonna list the vegan foods)

Poke sprouts
watercress
leeks
dandelion crowns
chickweed, mustard and other greens
asparagus
KY coffee tree
wild strawberries
blackberry
mushrooms (the morels are called dry land fish)
nuts: hickory, walnut and hazelnut
mulberry
grapes

so, besides heading down to the garden to pick dinner, there is also the choice of
heading into the woods or down to the pastures or over by the creek.




morel mushrooms





wild grapes grow everywhere
there is a tree or a fence
they make great wine



90+ degrees

No air conditioner here so when it is 90+ degrees out, I try to cook outside, to keep from heating up the house.

Grilled peppers, corn and corn muffins



Keep the heat out of the kitchen salad

This is a great summer dish
using last years frozen corn and peppers and grilling them for extra flavor and adding black beans, scallions and lots of fresh cilantro. I used the stalks of chard, instead of store-bought celery, which adds a crunch to the salad. Also added sliced radishes, and a vinaigrette.




Pizza grilled
adds tons of flavor

 Cheers to the great outdoors, fresh flavors and hot summer days!

Raspberry, Rosemary, Lemons & Flowers

Raspberries ripen after the strawberries and before the blueberries.
Raspberries have a compound called: ellagitannin, which is a potent antioxidant, a health-protective compound with potent anti-cancer activity. Raspberries have double the antioxidants than strawberries.


The harvest of the raspberries begins with a refreshing tonic from Dr. Weil.
Rosemary Raspberry Lemonade. A beautiful refreshing drink infused with the flavor of rosemary.

the ingredients for the fusion of herbs,flowers and fruit.

Recipe: 

1 quart water, boiling
1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
2-3 lemons
1/4 cup sugar/honey/agave nectar
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
edible flowers

Make a rosemary infusion by pouring the boiling water over the fresh rosemary and let steep for ~ 20 minutes. Add the sweetener, cut-up lemons and ice. Garnish drinks with raspberries and flowers.
Use Basil blossoms, calendula, lavender, rose petals or nasturtiums.

a great healthy drink to begin the summer months

Besides the health benefits of the raspberries, the lemons, rosemary and even the flower petals
all provide protective compounds for us.  Enjoy.