Tomorrow Rodger and Jason will skin an process the deer Rodger got a couple weeks ago and get him out of my summer kitchen.That is if Jason can use his right hand well enough. He has a splint on it because he had an accident at work and broke his hand. Just a boxers fracture and it will heal fast. Its no biggie for him. It rained last weekend and they didn't get that task taken care of. We just got rain from the tail end of the hurricane Sandy that hit the east coast devastating several states. Please keep those folks in your prayers. After the fellers get the deer processed I will need to spend a week in the summer kitchen canning up some of our smaller sweet potatoes. After canning they can just be drained and glazed an served. If you hadn't noticed I can a lot of what I call "convenience foods" for us. There are time in winter if we get a big snow storm we can lose power for several days and the things I can are things that can be opened and just heated up and served with minimal resources. I also need to get some pears canned before they are all gone and get eaten by the deer an rabbits. By the time I get this done I hope the fellers have more deer to hang in the kitchen to cool out. Most likely that will be the end of our season of canning and preserving. Till next year at least.
I finally made my granola today. The recipe I used is great but the idea of toasting the granola in the crock pot was a no go. So I made the granola the old fashioned way. So here is the recipe for granola.
Granola my way
5 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup ground flax seed
3/4 cup coconut oil (I use half butter, half oil)
3/4 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups coconut
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raw almonds
1 to 2 cups mix ins (seeds or nuts of choice, raisins, dried fruit, chocolate chips)
Melt oil and/or butter, stir in honey, vanilla and cinnamon.
In a large bowl mix remaining ingredients except mix ins. Pour oil mixture over all and stir to blend evenly.
Pour granola into a baking pan and put in 350 degree oven till toasted. Stir every 5 or 10 minutes for even browning. When toasted cool add the mix ins of choice and store in air tight container.
This only took about 20 or 30 minutes in my oven as I used a dark pan and it browned faster so watch the granola closely as to not burn it. Below are the mix ins that I used. On the left is dried ground cherries, dried strawberries and dried apples, and in the bag Chia seeds.
IF my plans go as I plan I will make another batch of cookie dough to freeze for later when the kids are home. We always need snacks when the kids are here. Somehow they think they need to eat while they are home. But thas OK, thas what moms do for their kids when they are gone from home too long. I am really looking forward to their visit. I guess I will just stay busy till then.
Remember the orphan kittens I raised after their momma got killed? The black one has disappeared but I still have Possum. When they were little they spent a lot of time with the chickens. So now in the evening when I go out to close up the chickens Possum is usually in the building with them. I have a confused cat that thinks hes a chicken.
Not much else happening on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
1 comment:
Hello Stella, we enjoy your blog and are learning many good and useful things. We are Ted and Joyce and live in north central Arkansas. As voluntary transplants three years ago from Tulsa, OK, we had a lot to learn about country living -- and still do.
Last summer I built a chicken tractor to house our BR chicks, which was our first experience of raising chickens. I built three nesting boxes that are 14 inches up from the main coop floor, and I installed an intermediate step at 7 inches to help them step up and into the boxes. The boxes are nice and private with new wheat straw inside. But never mind, our three pullets, two of which have just starting laying, want nothing to do with them. They lay their eggs everywhere but there -- on the floor, in the run, even in the wood crib in the dirt. I didn't know I'd need to "train" them to use the nest boxes! Do you have any suggestions?
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