Dog Trade, Baby Chicks, and Butter!!!

In Sulpher, OK...a town 18 miles to the North of us there is a Dog Trade Days every Sunday. It dates back to the late 1800's and is still going today. It is like a massive Flea Market that spans acres and acres. It was originally so farmers could trade their chickens, goats, livestock, pigs, hunting dogs, canned goods etc to get what they needed and get rid of what they didn't need. 

We went this past Sunday and I got the stuff to make Salsa Verde to can for this winter. I had never made it before but I decided on a whim that it was getting done. I wanted to just do a small batch because I wasn't sure how it would come out. 

OMG I am good....really good...at that!!! It is the next best thing to Chocolate. Oh it has a nice kick to it but it isn't one of those set you on fire kicks. I am kicking myself for not getting more stuff to make it with. 

I ended up with 4 pints and 3 jars of 1/2 pints. I used one of the half pints as tasting so it went into the fridge. I WILL be making more. It is delicious. 

After Dog Trade Days we went to pick up 8 Lakenveldor chicks. We have been wanting some but they are kinda hard to come by down here. This is what they should look like when they are older.

So now I have 25 White Leghorn Chicks and 8 Lakenveldor chicks. 

The man that sold us both sets of baby chicks has this huge pear tree in his front yard. When we went to get the leghorn chicks I asked him about pears. He said to take all I wanted. So when we got the Lakenveldor chicks I took along a tote and got some pears, too. \

I canned pears on Sunday evening. I had a few pears....well a total of 55 pints. That was about 3/4 of one of those standard size storage totes like you get at Walmart. Now, I don't know what I am going to do with 55 pints of pears. Morgan is the only one who eats pears. So he is set for a long while. LOL

Of course, nothing goes to waste. The pigs will get the peels and cores..which there was a good amount of. I apologize for the blurriness of this photo. I am not real sure why it came out this way.

On Saturday, at the Farmers Market, we bought an Israeli Melon. I had no clue what it would taste like. The man said it was white meated and really sweet. I forgot to take a photo of the whole melon but the rind looked like this....

It tasted like a super sweet cantaloupe. These were organic so I saved the seeds to plant my own next year. :-)

I got a new toy on Thursday evening. It is a 1930's or so butter churn. So naturally I had to try it out. 

So that was the weekend on the farm :-)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Lets Do Some Salsa!

Today I am going to make and can salsa. With a 1 year old in the house I often have to do things like this in stages. I don’t have several hours all together to do the chopping and such. So I do little spurts at a time.

I am also going to dehydrate onions for making my own onion powder…which, if you follow me, know that we do regularly.

I was able to get 36 pounds of onions at ALDI’S for $8.28. If I was to buy onion powder it wouldn’t be as strong as homemade and I would have to use about 3 times more than what I use from my homemade....so I am saving myself about $20 using homemade. PLUS no MSG, salt, or anything of that nature is added....pure, clean, food!

ALDI’S had tomato 4 packs on sale for .69 cents so I bought 12 of them. We bought jalapeno’s while we were gone to Texas at the Traders Village. The peppers were $2.50 and it was a HUGE bag. I used about 1/4 of the bag. I had some baby sweet peppers that I had gotten several weeks ago at ALDI’S when they were on sale for .99 cents that were red, yellow, and orange. I bought a 4 pack of the green bell peppers at ALDI’S for .99 cents.

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3 heads of garlic are chopped…messy job :-)

3 pounds of onions got chopped…Emma wasn’t excited about the smell of the process.

The seeds and cores went to the chickens. They love little playful treats like these.

I got 9 quarts of CHUNKY salsa.

Total price was $12.57 for me to make it. That means I got 288 ounces of salsa. Salsa in the store is about $2 for 24 ounces. So I saved myself about $6 making my own PLUS it has no msg or other chemicals or bi-products in it.

Getting Our Planting On

Today I worked in the yard from about 11 until 3 and then again from about 5:30 til dark. From 3 to 5:30 I was gone getting feed for the pigs and chickens.

I got some weed eating done and some of the trash and debris in the yard picked up.

I bought a foxglove at the store the other day. It was absolutely gorgeous and I had never seen one…I fell in love. It is a perennial and should spread like tulips and such do....next year I will be ordering bulbs that are of a different color…my hope is to have a whole front yard that blooms in different areas over the seasons. If I could do all flowers and not have grass to mow that would be okay with me. Our front yard has a good amount of trees, most of which are fruit trees, so it doesn’t get a lot of sun during summer time so I have to do things that are partial shade there.

One of the garden areas is planted. In this one I have 6 squash plants and 18 different tomato plants…with 3 varieties..large cherry tomatoes, homestead tomatoes, and heck I can’t remember the 3rd one right now. Down at the end where Morgan is standing we planted the grapefruit tree that we bought last year. The colored pots hold green onions, snap peas, jalapenos, okra, and Brussel sprouts.

Gracie, my Chiorkie and one of the Red-Blue Cochin Roosters was enjoying the fresh cut grass this afternoon

Oh this is the veggie salad I made for dinner last night to go with the meatloaf. It was SUPER good…

I bought some Arkansas Traveler tomatoes and we put them in their own little spot today. I didn’t get photo’s of it as I forgot so I will post them tomorrow.

Celery, Peppers, Onions, Eggs....Oh My

Today will be busy. I have started the first of the onions parboiling so I can get them in the dehydrator. I will have to do this process probably 4 times today as I have a lot of onions that need to be done. I will freeze part of them for cooking but most of them will be made into onion powder.

I need to dehydrate some celery as well. I have 3 bunches that need cut, boiled, and placed in the dehydrator. I have 6 bell peppers that I will dehydrate as well so I can use them in soups and such.

The first batch of onions is being brought to a boil.

Into the dehydrator we go.

The celery par boiled and into the dehydrator

Par Boiling the bell peppers

Bell Peppers in the dehydrator

Ready! Set! Dehydrate!

Nothing ever goes to waste here on the farm…so the onion peels will be going to compost. The celery leaves go in a bag to go in the freezer for when I make stock. The bottom shafts of the celery are in a container with water and in the window so they can grow me some more celery.

I have about 6 dozen eggs that need to be dealt with. I will be pickleing them with some jalapeno’s. The first 3 dozen are in the pot and about to start boiling.

For the brine I got a jar of jalapenos, added 2 of the same size jars of water and 1 size of the jars with vinegar. I have them warming on the stove.

6 Dozen eggs gave me 3 1/2 gallon jugs of pickled eggs....

Oh, Let’s not forget..the day always includes someone having to feed Little Man

I guess that is it for the Homestead today....It just turned 9 pm and I have been at it since early this morning!