So I finally realized why I haven't been blogging... I mean, aside from having to work dawn to dark running a farm, homeschooling my children, keeping the house clean and creating nutritious gourmet meals each night. I mean aside from all that, I realized that it all came crashing down a couple months ago when I overheard John telling someone how funny my blogs are... wow. Seriously. That is a lot of pressure. I can't just be funny on demand ya know and so now and I feel all this pressure. to be funny. Ugh.
Well, after much reflection, I have decided to free myself from the pressure to write amusing and interesting blogs and just say what's on my mind. No more funny - anything funny from here on out is completely unintentional. Whew! Now that I have that off my chest, I will now blog with no pressure.
So recently we've been listening to some of Joel Salatin's Vision Quest talks (that my very excellent friend Jo gave me) and he is WonderFUL!!! Shame on you if you don't know who he is - just the godfather of all pasture based farming...duh. And naturally my kids are listening as well and absorbing every word. Like sponges. And much of his talk is about his trials with government regulators and all the obstacles he faced as the forerunner of the local food movement etc.
NOW my very crazy/funny/weird son plays Health Department Raid with his legos - see the scene I came upon when I walked into my kitchen the other day.

Ian's big goal in life is to become a lawyer so that he can defend farmers and sue McDonalds and Tyson. John and I can't decide whether to be proud or afraid for this child's future. Scary.

The other night I made roast chicken with butternut squash, mushrooms and garlic. Delish. I'll post the recipe on the website. By the way... this is a Freedom Ranger which is an absolutely wonderful bird. Yum. I love fall root veggies and gourds. And mushrooms and garlic... OK I never met a food I didn't like...except lima beans...yuck. Maybe if I put some in the garden I'll be forced to love them. Or the pigs will :)

Look what The World is Coming to an End Soon Santa brought me! A dehydrator!!! A BIG ONE!!! I asked for a dehydrator for Christmas but I was thinking the little Ronco model that holds like 10 grapes or something... not this "Store Enough Food for the End Times" model that I unwrapped on Christmas morning. Gracious! Needless to say, in the past few days all of the food has disappeared from my fridge and is now in vacuum bags in the pantry awaiting the next armageddon. I'm having an absolute ball dehydrating food but do you know how many apples I have to slice, peel and core to fill 12 shelves? I'm exhausted! Ya know... some women get jewelry for Christmas. Suckers.

So I threw everything I could find into the dehydrator and ... oh good god... is that avocado on the second shelf up? Yup. Dehydrates about the same as slices of butter. Don't do that. It doesn't work. Darn. Pigs liked it.

Apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes, oranges - oh my. Next nuclear winter comes, party at my house.

Worst blogger EVER!!!

Yes, it's true - I'm the absolute worst blogger on the planet - I just checked my blog and I didn't post one single thing in November and only once in October. I could make excuses but we all know what excuses are like...and I don't even have any pictures for you... well, I have one...

We have been eating a LOT of chicken so I am becoming the resident expert on chicken stock and it's magically delicious properties which are numerous! Short of fueling the space shuttle, this amazing liquid can do anything! It's practically a superfood in a pot - it cures ALL ills (caution...this statement has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA) and I have just discovered a secret that my owl and hawk friends (HA!) taught me - the head of the chicken is really the best part!

Yes, I often cook broth with the carcass left over from our meals and it was WAY better than that travesty they call chicken stock at the store but last night I put in three heads and six feet with the carcass and BAM!!! Chicken broth ala'extrodinare! It was golden, rich and mmmmmmmmm. And if you put enough onion and celery in, you can't even see the heads staring out at you (just kidding...their eyes are closed) just don't stir it too much or you have to keep poking beaks and toes down into the broth with is actually pretty amusing in a witch's brew kind of way.

I had read an old chicken broth recipe that said to remove the skin from the feet which I did on a few of them but even I have to admit that it's creepy and gross so I stopped - hey, it's all getting strained out anyway! I now have more chicken broth in my freezer than I can shake a stick at ... winter colds, do your worst!

Can you tell that I have been reading a book on the origin of old colonial colloquialisms (I challenge you to say that 10 times fast!) Yes, this is actually the kind of stuff I read when I'm not reading farming books. My favorite so far is haywire 'cause I actually really get that one! I deal with hay wire a lot and it can be pretty crazy for sure! Warning - many weird expressions will be liberally sprinkled throughout my blogs so be on the lookout 'cause here on the farm we talk turkey and go whole hog!

Until next time,

Brie