Drying Kale

I love the nutritional benefits of kale the the actual act of eating it for me leaves a little something to be desired. I blanched and froze a bunch of it last year and while we did eat it this winter I always wrinkled my nose a little when we would have it. I am not sure if it was to mature but it is always way to fibrous for me to truly enjoy. This year I thought, "there has to be a better way!"

I got to talking to one of the farmers at our farmers market and she said to try drying it and putting it is soups and stews. Ok, here goes nothing.

First I harvested the larger outer leaves of the kale, saving the smaller inner leaves for a later harvest.
Then I brought them in and rinsed them (ok, actually I didn't rinse them but YOU should. We had just had a good rain and they were clean anyway)

Then I started to de-rib them and put the leafy part in my steamer. You need to blanch them before you dry them the same as you would if you were going to freeze them.

Once my steam baskets were full I steam blanched the kale for about 3-4 mins

I love my bamboo steamer, It works great for these types of things. Once the 3-4 mins was over I laid the steamed kale leaves on the trays of my dehydrator.

I have an Excalibur dehydrator so it really does not take long to dehydrating things. I only let it run for like 4-5 hours and it was dry as a bone.

There you have it, a "how to" on drying kale. I will do an update post when I actually make something with it.

So tell me, have you ever dried kale? Or what is your favorite kale recipe?

Homestead Barn Hope #69

Home is where the heart is #1

The way we are

People often ask us what prompted us to starting homesteading. Usually the first thing they say is "it is so much easier to just go to the store." Yes, it is easier but the cost is so much higher, and not just the monetary cost either.

My family came to Alaska in the 40's well before statehood. My Grandfather wore many hats but one was that of a bush pilot and hunting guide. My Grandmother held down the fort while he was away and raised 6 kids. They always had a big garden, chickens, and mostly canned what they needed for the winter. I was the second youngest of her grandchildren so she was older by the time I came along and no longer canned but she still had a big garden and greenhouse. I learned about gardening for her and heard many stories about "the way things were." They did for themselves for the most part because no one was going to do it for them.  My father instilled the same ideas in me while I was growing up. We had a garden and were commercial fishermen so we put away enough of the catch for our winter needs.

BW was raised in Oregon and Montana but they also had a garden and hunted. His Mom grew up on a farm with a lot of siblings so they also grew and hunted most of their food, canning it for the winters.

BW grew up with a love of hunting and fishing so when we got together we started hunting and fishing together. I had never really recreationaly fished so that was new for me as well as hunting. Even though my dad grew up hunting he never really hunted when I was a kid. When BW and I had Skiffbaby we decided that we wanted to her to grow up on as much good Homegrown, Home Canned, Home Produced food as we could get our hands on.

Also I started looking into what goes into our food about 7 years ago and it scared the beegeeberz out of me. It started with me buying organic milk, then organic produce and went on from there. In 2010 we got meat chickens then a small flock of layers and on from there.

For now we have had meat chickens, a laying flock of hens, a garden, we fish, and we will hunt this fall as we always do.

All in all we choose this lifestyle because we love it and believe it is the best way for our family to thrive.

Linked to

Barn Hop #68

Firewood and a Holz Hausen

Firewood is something with think of year round up this far north. Even in the summer it is in the back of our minds that it is much easier to get firewood now then in January when there is snow up to our waists or deeper. It is pretty satisfying to see a tree go from

This

To This

To This

BW is creating a Holz Hausen. It is a greman way of stacking firewood that is supposed to improve how it dries. This is what a finished Holz Hausen looks like

Photo Credit

Obviously it is not going to be a traditional Holz Hausen because it is around a tree but it still looks super cool and considering it is in the front yard that is important.

These are a few pictures from year ago and this trip is the reason we do firewood in the summer now.

BW

At least it was a rewarding trip

More Chickens!!!

Meet the newest members of our little Homestead

That is Mr. Hurley in the front with Lady (the lavender) and DeeDee (the Blue) they are Orpington Chickens. I got them from some friends that are moving and can't take them with. I was hoping to get some chicks from them because the Orpington are supposed to be very cold hardy and friendly. I have to say though that I would not consider Mr. Hurley to be especially friendly. I have to lock him out of the coop to collect eggs as he wants to go after me. If he keeps up this behavior he will be invited to dinner.

So the chicken count is now up to 5 mature layers, 8 pullets (although i am almost sure on of those is actually a rooster) and one grumpy rooster.

They put the funny in the farm

I though now would be a good time to introduce the animals of our little homestead.

The Dogs

Casey

(pretty but not real bright)

Rosa

(she was pissed it was raining)

The Cat

Blaze

(WHAT?)

Chickens

The seasoned Crew

(no we are not coming out, it is RAINING!!!)

The Greenhorns

Yes the newby's live in a dog kennel for now. They are still pretty little.

Well there you have it, that is the non human ocupants of our little homestead.

Homestead Barn Hop #67

Fresh Milk and Butter Making

We did it, we took the the plunge. We bought a share in a cow. What does that really mean you say? Well it means we own a little bit of a cow so that we can have fresh raw milk. We have been talking the idea around for sometime. Me longer than BW. BW has in the last year developed a disturbing intolerance to milk. Anything with much milk in it send him straight to the outhouse, and for someone who LOVES milk this is a very disheartening turn of events. I was listening to a podcast last fall about raw milk and one of the things they said was that a lot of people who have issues digesting milk have no problems with raw milk. Well when we were giving the opportunity to try this we jumped on it. Low and behold he has no problems digesting this stuff.

Now he is all excited about the possibilities. So last night he got to thinking... Can we make our own butter out of this. Well I said, give it a whirl. So he sucked the cream off the top of the jar with a turkey baster and put it in a smaller jar and shook it. And shook it, and shook it. After about 15 Min's we opened the jar and this is what there was

So we pulled the lump of butter out of the jar

And proceeded to make toast and have butter and toast at midnight because we couldn't wait to test it out. Now BW wants to know if we can get just cream also to start make our own butter all the time.

Barn Hop #66

What a difference a couple months make

I am sorry it has taken me this long to get back to the blog. Life got in the way and got very hectic. I am hoping things are mellow enough now that I can get back to the things I enjoy.

What a difference a couple of months make

this was taken just this evening. Look no snow!!!!!

A few updated on the homestead.
Skiffbaby got a clean bill of health for a while so that is off my mind now.
Probably not going to be doing any major renovations/ additions to the cabin this year. Boo :(
Had a brown bear get into my chicken coop this spring and kill 2 of my chickens and tear the door off the coop.

This is all that is left of my flock

My three poor hens were not producing enough eggs for our little family so we decided to get a "few" more hens...

This is what we ended up with

Eight little 10 week old "barnyard mix" hens. We really have not much of a clue of their actual breeding but they are supposed to be good layers. We are pretty sure at least one is a rooster but he will make great chicken and dumplings when the time comes. I have no interest in having a rooster again.

And a little update on my garden

I have those three planter boxes and the little pop up greenhouse. I love my planter boxes, BW made them for me out of some T&G cedar that we had for another project. They are beautiful and smell GREAT. The boxes have lettuce mixes, Swiss Chard and kale in them and the greenhouse have nine plum and slicer tomato plants. I will also be adding basil to the greenhouse.