Spring Gobbler Bouquet

I like it when a hunter goes out to kill a spring gobbler and comes home bearing a beautiful bouquet for me!

Beef Stock

Here's the finished product of the beef bone stock.
The photo is making everything a little more orange than t is, but the color is fairly accurate. It looks just like the expensive brand of chicken stock I buy at the store.
I used some in our roast the other night and it was the best beef and potatoes I had ever had. So that's an encouraging thought!

This stock will be a healthy food for my family. I know that much.

New Piglets Have Arrived!

Halvah delivered eleven healthy piglets all by herself early this morning!
I checked her late last night then proceeded to sleep in for the first time in a long time.
Becky woke me with a silky soft rooting little piglet on my pillow.

Fire Burn and Caldron Bubble

I'm too proud of this concoction to wait for the finished product, neatly lined up in jars on my counter. I have to show you now!

Isn't it pretty?

It's beef stock with roasted beef bones, carrots, celery, garlic, red onion, spring onion, a splash of vinegar, and parsley.
I'll add some sea salt before I can it. It's been simmering close to 24 hours now.

While the girls are reffing a soccer game in town, I plan to run into Appomattox and buy some more canning jars plus some pretty phlox to plant by the mouth of the driveway. The pretty phlox can be a pig snack.

The cat and the pig are both still pregnant as I type up this post...

Yonanas!

Laura and I were at our Weight Watchers meeting the other day when we heard about a Yonana machine that turns fruit into ice cream.
I could use the Vitamix, but it wastes so much of the sorbet trying to dig it out of the bottom.
I splurged. It's worth it!
In a matter of seconds this turns frozen fruit into a creamy ice cream substitute.
It will be especially good for summer to have point free desserts which actually satisfy.

Introducing "Jamie" (with a cameo apperance by Gooseberry)

Tragically, after my last post in which we were still deciding between "Casanova" and "Jamie" for the new Gloucestershire Old Spot breeding hog's moniker, the local tv station called to ask questions about the pigs. Being on the spot to tell on live tv what the pig's name is, I blurted out "Jamie" and now he's named.
It was only later that I read Laura's (from Good Enough Farm) comment that she wanted "Casanova."
You can't please all of the people...
Why was the tv station asking me about our pigs, you may be wondering?
Last month, Garcia walked off of the farm and has never been seen again. The news had a story about him being missing and lots of people wanted to know if he'd ever been found. No, he hasn't, but Katie decided to keep breeding rare, heritage breed pigs. Hence the follow up story on Jamie and Halvah for closure on Garcia for the community.

I took this picture of Gooseberry on my way up the back stairs from getting a portrait of Jamie and I like it.

Rampant April Fool's Jokes

I usually fall for every April Fool's joke I see on April 1st of each year.
This year I caught myself a whole bunch of times before being completely gullible, so I was feeling proud of my new found disbelief.
Today I wasn't so astute.
I got right up to Sabrina the hen before I realized she was just sun-bathing, not actually deceased. You can't see in the picture, but she's on a hill in a precarious looking posture. Ick.
Then I found Fuzzy Wuzzy Ewok out in the field, apparently dead from the sudden heat wave. I was listening to his chest for a heart beat before he woke up. He's perfectly fine, just a little tired!
Probably adding to my sensitivity about death in animals today is the fact that old Mr. B was having a hard time with the heat yesterday. A very hard time. The whole reason I went outside was to make sure he was alive and okay because he wasn't where I could see him with the herd.
He was on the other side of the hill and feeling just fine.
Well played, farm animals!

Sweet Halvah

Halvah is our new purebred Tamworth sow. She's named after a Middle Eastern dessert which is apt, because she is a sweet girl.
She's bred to one of Garcia's relatives and due with Tamworth/Gloucestershire Old Spot piglets any moment now.
Tamworths are an endangered breed in America. They're used especially for crossing with other breeds because of their ability to have a large weight without a lot of fat.
I think it's time for us to start keeping some of these designer piglets for our own culinary delights!

Tarkheena Piglets

When I saw Becky and Laura carrying girl piglets two at a time from the little pen in which they had captured them over to the bigger pen, my thoughts went to The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, when Aravis a Lasaraleen are being carried in a litter by slaves.
Which reminds me; now is a good time to reread the Chronicles of Narnia.

Brand New Piglet! or: Why I Should Try to be a Submissive Wife

There are two separate and distinct little piglets represented in these three photos.
When our new Gloucestershire Old Spot boar disembarked from the truck and ran to the center of Opal's ten piglets, Danny told me, "Be careful that you don't sell him by mistake this weekend."
I laughed and mocked him for a little while with the idea that I could never mix up the brand new purebred with my own, my precious, mixed breed piglets.
So, the top photo is one of the ten photos I snapped of one of Opal's piglets, thinking it was the new pig.
The bottom two are really and truly the new guy.
He's a "blue group" GOS. The breed is separated into four "color groups" to help keep inbreeding to a minimum.
FYI: it's hard to see well through a camera lens!