Stock Pot

After roasting each of our chickens we immediately make stock. It has become a routine task that is especially appreciated this time of year - soup season!  Here is a super simple way to get delicious stock and put the entire bird to use.

Roast the chicken your favorite way and cut all the meat off of the bird.

Put your carcass in a large pot with 1 quartered onion,  2 quartered carrots and 2 quartered celery sticks.  Season with bay leaf, salt and pepper.

Fill the pot with water so it just covers the contents.

Put a lid on pot and bring to a rapid boil.  Uncover and reduce to a low simmer for 1 hour.

Skim fat off the top throughout the hour.

Strain and refrigerate, freeze or start a soup.

Yummy Chicken soap

Eggcellent

It seems like an eternity since our first batch of chicks arrived in the mail. We now finally we have eggs, tiny tiny eggs, but eggs never the less.  The first eggs found themselves on one of Lane's homemade pizzas which was rich and delicious.  At first we noticed one a day and now we are up to finding two every morning. We like to think that their cozy new home and ability to forage the land encouraged productivity. 

Thanksgiving Deep Fry with friends!
Chicken we raised and Meryl's spicy pickles.

Traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Chicken we raised, potatoes and squash from garden. Pumpkin Custard and Cranberry Sauce;
 ingredients from Lunenburg.  Lane's bread and so much more!
A gratifying meal for us all after the first summer on the farm.

Lane's Pizza

Happy Hens

 We have finished building our first hoop house.  It is the happy home of our free ranging layers.  Every morning when they are let out it is nice and warm inside and the hens are spread out through the house "dusting."  It was good practice for the next poly-tunnel project that will be twice the size for vegetables.  

We had some minor complications with the sizing of the PVC but quickly found a fix to make the arches accurate before adding the plastic. 

 

Lane and Colin securing the PVC. 

Night ride on the tractor.

Esther is Expecting

It looks like Esther is pregnant.  In five months we will be milking!

Getting ready for Winter

Shade keeping the frost from melting.

Angelica found a monster radish that had been left in garden all summer!  Yikes!

Cold storage for the potatoes.  Using the bath tub yet again!

Garden plowed and turned over for next year.

Today at the Farm!

The ladies enjoying the sunshine.

"Come up getcha Doe bred"

Yesterday we noticed signs of heat in our oldest goat Esther. As newbies to the goat breeding world we quickly loaded her into the station wagon and drove up to Keith's house, the owner of the buck and a local Longhorn cow farmer. We set Esther into the paddock with the buck, two giant Longhorns and Keith's tiny Papillon dog named Rusty - an eclectic animal mix.  Bucky the buck was interested but Esther was paying more attention to Rusty than Bucky!  She was in heat but not yet in "standing heat," meaning close but no cigar!

Keith suggested taking her home for the night and bringing her back in the morning.  He sent us home with what is called a "buck rag,"a handkerchief that had been rubbed on the buck's head where the oil gland is released.  Apparently, due to her behavior when she smelt it, this stinky cloth was to help us tell if she was in "standing heat?!"  Sure enough, this morning Lane held up the rag and she rubbed up against it and wildly wagged her tail.  Greta and Mabel, our doelings, were also sniffing the rag, but today was about Esther, it was her big day.  So once again, we loaded her up in the station wagon and drove up to Keith's. Within minutes of letting her into the same paddock Bucky mounted and bred with her four times.  We won't get into details but Bucky definitely did not have stage fright.  It's hard not to have a good sense of humor about it!

We won't know whether Esther is pregnant for three weeks when her next scheduled heat cycle would take place.  If she goes into heat then another trip up to Keith's will be in order.  While we would prefer our kids to be born in the end of April (meaning becoming pregnant this time around) we do love going to Keith's because he is a wealth of knowledge in all aspects of farming. Today he reminded us that we can keep our rooster in with the flock then remove the eggs as they come and obviously they will not turn into chicks.  He went onto explain that fertilized eggs have more protein and are healthier to eat. We never claimed to know it all!  

Lane, Ajax and Esther in the back of the Volvo

Bucky the Buck

Bit of Romance

Rusty, the Watch Dog

Happy Longhorns

Mama Hen?

For the last couple of months we have noticed that one of our Barred Rocks is bigger, brighter, louder and harder for us to "rangle."  Since flocks form a hierarchy we chalked it up to be that she was just head bird, we named her Mama Hen and moved on... UNTIL three nights ago when locking them in at night Meryl heard load and clear "Cock-a-doodle-dooo." Mama Hen is in fact a rooster! Now, what to do with him before the hens start laying and those eggs turn into chicks! 

Yesterday we processed the first half of our broilers that have been living out in the movable coop.  Due to scheduling conflicts our chicken guru Matt was unable to come up to assist us.  So we watched Joel Salatin videos on YouTube and since Matt had assisted Meryl through it before, we felt prepared to give it a go ourselves.  It was a total success!

Mama Hen is a Rooster!

Processing Area

Plucking

Eviscerating

Looking Forward

Although summer has come to an end and there is less action here at Prospect Farm we do have some things to look forward to.  Thanks to our phenomenal friends Putnam, Raisa, Ben and Kerin we are excited for the installation of a beautiful sitting area surrounded by trees and shrubs.  It is a unique wedding gift that we are thrilled to see unfold!  We are also looking forward to milking our doe Esther in the spring.  That means we have to start breeding now!  We found an Alpine buck from a farmer down the road that primarily raises Longhorn cattle but also has goats, chickens and pigs.  When Esther is ready (in the next 18-21 days) we will drive her over for her special date! In the meantime we are working on building a hoop house for our forty hens.  This way we will be able to use the space they are in now as a birthing and kidding stall for the goats in the spring.  Although the progress has slowed for the moment we anticipate lots to come in the next few months.

Model of Sitting Area - Thanks Guys!

Longhorn Cattle are AWESOME!...the next venture??!

Letting hens out for the first time with the help of Jozie and Ajax!

Preserve Preserve Preserve!

Our vegetable garden was bursting at the seams for our small labor day wedding and it felt really nice to show off our hard work to guests.  After returning from our honeymoon we had to snap into action stewing, pickling, freezing, fermenting, cooking, canning, baking and blanching!

Garden at Wedding

Portion of the Harvest

Drying Beans

Cucumber Ice Bath for Bread and Butter Pickles

Water Bath

Preparing Tomatoes

Meryl's Tomato Sauce

Lane's Pizza

Wedding Salad from Garden - Thanks Ryan!

NH Peach Dutch Cake

Sauerkraut Fermenting

Catch Up

Hello again and sorry for our absence! Our wedding is in two weeks and it has been crazy, exciting but crazy! Although we have been busy working on the wedding it also contributes to the farm because we are holding the event here.  It will be special for us to embrace the beginning of our new life here on the farm while celebrating our marriage.  Photos will be more affective than words to catch you up to speed on our progress!

No trace of the burnt house!

Mulching Garden

Cooking from the Garden

 Goat Walks in the woods

 Delivery of our new Farmall Tractor. Driven by previous owner "Bud"

Bud showing us how to plow

Meryl's Dad, Bob, taking her for a evening ride

Removing rotten fence

Fence removed, much better!