kmhitzeman – Keba M Hitzeman

Innisfree Farm: Day 27 – even more sourdough

Managed to use up an entire 6 cup container of sourdough starter with the help of some lovely people on the internet. Made a double batch (ended up being 42, I think) of tortillas, a double batch of noodles and a batch of wheat bagels. See Day 21 for links to the recipes I used. I was looking for simple and easy to make, with things I already have. Starting there makes branching out to more complex foods or activities, well, easier!

Innisfree Farm: Day 26 – new horse

Welcome to the newest animal member at Innisfree Farm – Pixie. She’s a 6 year old Haflinger (Rosie is also a Haflinger, and closer to 10 years old), and she even came with a harness! She has been greenbroke(that means she’s done it before, but maybe isn’t completely used to doing it) to drive in a harness, so that means she “should” be easy to train to pull logs, a sled, and other things around the farm. This is exciting because Pixie (and Rosie, when we get her a harness) will take the place of using a tractor for some of the work we have.

Innisfree Farm: Day 24 / 25 – what a week

Sorry for no post yesterday – we went to look at a Haflinger mare up near Sidney! If everything goes as planned, she will be delivered tomorrow morning – pictures will be posted. Got home and pretty much collapsed. A random sampling of our eggs – compare them to what you see in the egg […]

A random sampling of our eggs – compare them to what you see in the egg case next time you’re at your local grocery. Even the “organic” “cage-free” eggs aren’t this interesting to look at! Our hens don’t know much about evenly sizing their eggs, or making sure the color is all the same (or that there are no “freckles” on the eggs!), but they do very well in the taste category.

Innisfree Farm: Day 23 – the other side

This life isn’t for the faint of heart. Tough decisions need to be made, when emotion can’t guide the outcome. When it’s not about what you want, but what’s best for the person or animal. And sometimes those decisions hurt. Ginny and Jenny – may your new pastures be sunny and warm, and may […]

Jenny

Ginny

Ginny and Jenny – may your new pastures be sunny and warm, and may the grass be the greenest of all.

Innisfree Farm: Day 22 – adventure

Minnie decided that the 50 foot tie-out rope is no longer sufficient and went on a fun adventure yesterday morning. I ended up walking a couple of miles around the perimeter of our farm (on the creek and river sides) calling her. She must have been hiding, because as I was walking up from the river, she bounded into the horse pasture (which the creek runs through, and where I had been looking for her), as happy as can be. We’ve read that Pyrs will hide, on purpose, because they think it’s a funny. Minnie definitely thinks it’s a funny – she likes to “hide” behind things and jump out at us.

Someone on Facebook asked me how we keep her clean. We don’t – if there’s mud or dirt, she’s covered with it. She loves to sit in the rain, then run through all the puddles, so she’s usually the color of those muddy paws in the pictures here (especially the back paws!), and wants to jump on me (remember, she is a 7 month old wiggly puppy).

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Innisfree Farm: Day 21 – sourdough, part 2

A little background: Some Facebook friends of mine posted earlier this month about picking a few things that you are currently purchasing, and making them yourself. Their challenge: ”Watch throughout your day to find something you are using that could be produced right there in your home so that you do not have to purchase […]

Food is (at least to me) an obvious place to begin, especially with all the people out there in Internet Land posting recipes. I found a great recipe for chicken taquitos, and an all-in-one bacon and egg biscuit.

Enter the excess sourdough we have. I’ve made pancakes, and more pancakes. We have some set aside for bread. What else to make? Noodles, bagels, and tortillas, of course! The bagels will be a weekend activity because they need to rise for 4 hours, during which time I’ll make the noodles (and get to try out my new pasta machine).

I managed to read the entire tortilla recipe to see that it needed to sit overnight, so I made the dough last night and made the tortillas this evening (long story, long day!). Here is the tasty outcome:

They are pretty poofy and, because I used kosher salt instead of finer ground salt, you get little bursts of saltiness, but they taste good and are pretty easy to make.

What can you make yourself that you’ve been buying?

Innisfree Farm: Day 20 – sourdough

“Innisfree sourdough” starter began in a bowl on top of our refrigerator and has been going strong ever since. However, making sourdough bread by hand is an all day proposition, and for various reasons, our starter languished in the back of the fridge for a long time. We recently got it back out and have been nursing it back to health over the last week. Which means feeding, adding water, and splitting the starter as it grows. Which then means there is a LOT of sourdough starter hanging around!

Denny came up with a great sourdough pancake recipe, and I’ve now made 3 double batches to use up the extra starter (I’m also attempting sourdough tortillas, but the dough needs to set overnight, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow!). That translates into 6 cups of starter, 6 cups of flour, 12 eggs, 12 tablespoons each of olive oil and local raw honey, 6 teaspoons each of salt and baking soda, and water to make it batter.

That’s a lot of pancakes!

Denny’s Sourdough Pancakes:

1 cup sourdough starter, 1 cup flour, 2 eggs, 2 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp honey, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda.

Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl, and add water until pancake consistency. Let rest 10 minutes – when it’s bubbly, it’s ready. Cook (I use a greased cast iron skillet) and enjoy!

Innisfree Farm: Day 19 – porta fence

What to do when you need some fence that isn’t permanent? Make it from PVC pipe, wind fence and zip ties, of course! They can be made in any length (the wind fence has fence post pockets every few inches) and are very portable, although the larger panels are a bit bulky to move. The panels can be tied to t-posts and make a good fencing for chickens. Before we put in the permanent fencing, we surrounded our garden with these panels to keep the chickens in or out, depending on the time of year. We still use them for when the chicks are old enough to range outside the coop, but still young enough that we want to keep them contained while outside.