Dinner on the Farm

Papa and Ada Belle are ready for dinner! The perfect dinner companions xoxo! We had ginger chicken stir fry, with garlic, onion, fresh chopped ginger, celery, baby bok choy,carrots, mushrooms,and bean sprouts, with Jasmine rice and an orange.

Double the Fun!

It all started innocently enough with a cracker party in the kitchen!


Then the secret whispers between Aiden and Ada began...


...and someone had to make the first move.


The little cousins were off to a secret destination...


...the stairs! Aiden set the ground rules:


Ready! Set! Go! Go! Go!!


Aiden made it to the top and turned to coax his little cousin all the way up!


There were more whispy whispers...


...and giggling and celebrating of mission accomplished!

Farm Snow

Last week we had a beautiful snow storm in Southern Oregon. There was a good 6 inches of snow on the farm. These pictures were taken midway through the snow fall. Here is the story in pictures.
















It took two days for this snow to melt. There are a few patches remaining under the eves of the barn and we have promises in the weather report of my snow to fall! It is February after all!!

Farm Babies

We have babies on the farm!!

There are 27 baby chicks on the farm: Rhode Island Reds, Lacewing Wyandotte, and Araucona babies. They will be ready to lay eggs by about the first of August to add to our flock of hens already producing. The baby chicks arrived just in time to meet another baby!

Ada and her Mama are on the farm from Alaska visiting and playing with all of the animals. What a special time of year!

Winter Blues

This is one of my favorite pieces from my mom's kitchen that I remember as a young girl. It hangs in my kitchen now in just the right spot to get the end of the evening sun low in the sky.


The blue deviled egg dish is an old piece found in one of our local antique stores. It is not really an antique, but charming and ready to hold some delicious eggs.


Finally! The hens are starting to lay some beautiful blue eggs. The daylight is lengthening just enough to encourage a few more treasured eggs today. I wonder what kind of winter blues you find around your home.~

Happy Birthday Anna!

Happy Birthday, Anna Grace! Anna turned 4 today.


On Sunday, we celebrated a birthday lunch with her. We had all of Anna's favorites to eat and believe it or not the menu consisted of spinach salad, oven fried chicken, and warm potato salad.


The spinach salad was made with fresh greens, farm fresh eggs, bacon, avocado, green onions and nothing else! No dressing was needed as everything blended together.


Oven fried chicken is truly one of Anna's favorite dishes. She slips into a soft hum of daintily eating a drumstick and licking her little fingers. Then quietly says, "More chicken please!" It is so fun to watch Anna eat chicken.


Warm potato salad is a great surprise! We discovered this by accident. Actually it was a late preparation one summer day and the potato salad was forgotten until nearly meal time. What I thought would be a disaster turned into a family favorite! Potato salad made the same old way, but instead served warm. This particular salad had potatoes, eggs, a little bit of bacon, green onions, pickle juice, and mayo. It stirs into almost mashed potato salad and everyone enjoys the comforting warmth, especially our birthday girl!


Happy Birthday to our special Anna Boo Boo! We sure do love you~~

Farm Culture

Yogurt on the farm is a soothing and tasty treat. When making yogurt, remember two things: it takes time and slow food is good food!

We use the simplest of recipes for the yogurt:
4 Cups Organic Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Non fat dried milk (Bob's Red Mill Organic version is our favorite)
1 Packet Yo'gourmet (Yogurt starter with probiotics)

Directions:
Pour the plain milk into a sauce pan and bring it to a near boil. In other words, when the milk looks smoky or steamy on top, remove it from the heat, add the nonfat dry milk, stir until dissolved, and allow milk mixture to cool down to 100 degrees. Do not boil the milk.
Once the milk has cooled down to 100 degrees add the yogurt starter. Sprinkle on top, let is dissolve into milk mixture and stir. It will smell delicious!
Now pour this into the containers for culturing. We use the little Girmi Machine. It is so easy to plug it in and walk away.

We usually start the yogurt process at 3 pm, this means it has cooled down and ready to plug in. Then we forget about it until about 6:00 am the next morning. The longer the yogurt sets the thicker and more tart it becomes. We like it on the thick side so overnight gives the yogurt plenty of time to set. At this point the culturing is complete. The individual jars are removed, covered, and refrigerated. Once the yogurt has completely cooled it is ready to eat.

Now it is time to add some homemade jam or jelly is added for a little sweetness. Honey, dried fruit, granola, or nuts are tasty with the yogurt too. Our favorite is some blackberry syrup from the farm.