Natural Raw Honey

 My bee keeping husband just extracted 2 supers full of golden honey. My oldest daughter took this picture and she has sold 3 quarts and 3 pints just to her facebook friends. We have honey for sale for local pick up only. We use only natural methods and treatments for mites. Contact me for pricing.

Pasture Pork

This is Miss Black our Hamp-York cross shoat. She loves to get milk in the morning after I milk our dairy goats. Milk is very good and a cheap food. She also gets soaked ground grains like corn, barley and field peas. No soybeans here. All the extra garden produce gets thrown to her as well. She loves beet tops and pea shells and a good scratching from the farmer. Ah a pigs life, eat all you want, lay around in the dirt and  get scratched now and then. We don't tell her why she is getting fed so good.  HUMBLE PIG

Herbal moth repellant

These three aromatic herbs are the main ingredients for my herbal moth repellent. I have been drying and combining Lavender, Pennyroyal and Wormwood  together for over 10 years to keep moths out of my woolen things, and to this day I have no moths. If you plan to grow and use Pennyroyal do not handle it if you are pregnant or nursing. It is very powerful stuff.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

I hope all those dads had a great Fathers Day. I know the way to a mans heart is to cook for him so I baked a Rhubarb custard pie. This is the very first harvest I have gotten off my rhubarb plant and this pie did it justice. The recipe came out of an old cookbook called Betty Crockers Picture Cook Book.

Fill pastry-lined 9" pie pan with rhubarb custard filling.
Beat slightly... 3 eggs,
Add... 2- 2/3 tbsp. milk, 
Mix together and stir in...2 cups of sugar, 
4 tbsp. flour, 
3/4 tsp. nutmeg,
Mix in...4 cups cut-up pink rhubarb, 
Dot filling in pan with...1 tbsp butter. 
Cover with lattice top. Bake until nicely browned. Temp. 400 degrees for 50-60 min.

Of course I used my free range chicken eggs, goat milk and home made butter. My pastry was made with lard.

Fry Pan Special

Tuesday morning the local post office called and said my chicks had arrived. I ordered 25 heavy breed roosters for meat. Only 1 died in transport and they sent 1extra and all are doing fine. When they get their feathers they will go outside in the traveling chicken house to eat grass,bugs and anything else they find. Until then my piglets are using it because they are too small for the pig pen. Top photo is the traveling chicken house my husband built. I am always amazed how cute these peeps are.

Weekend Sewing Project

This weekend I  finally started and finished a bag I have been trying to get to for so long. I won't say how long but I needle punched the border collie that is appliqued on the front. Needle punching is done with a small pen-like puncher using embroidery floss. It's fairly quick and easy. I picked out the sheepy fabric at a quilt shop and lined it with a floral print to match. This is the first sewing project I've done in a long time other than mending, yes I still mend things.

Sainte- Maure Goat Cheese

This year one of my goals is to make the french goat cheese Sainte- Maure. This is a soft cheese(not pressed) but drained in small molds. My guide and inspiration is "The Fabrication of Farmstead Goat Cheese" by Jean-Claude Le Jaouen. So I ordered the chevre' culture and white mold powder and voila'. After the cheese comes our of the mold I sprinkle it with salt and innoculate with penicillium spray. The cheese is then air dried to produce a rind for a few days and placed in my cave fridge so the mold will grow. In just 2-3 weeks I have a very nice flavored cheese. I actually had the opportunity to talk to a lady from France about how to eat a cheese like this and she said to eat it fresh with fruit and or french bread. The flavor is mildly cheesey and the texture is creamy. Yummy!

Honey on the moon?

Not quite honey from the moon but from our busy bees. Wednesday was busy with extracting new honey. It's a little earlier this year because of all the nice weather. This frame of honey is just what you want to see in the super, full and capped off(this means the honey is ready). Honey that is not capped off is really not ready and can seem a little watery. We extracted about 7 gallons off of 3 hives or 21 full frames. A land flowing with milk and honey, now for some goat milk!