All About Goat

And her duck and chicken friends

Okay, so my title is misleading because we didn’t suddenly get a GOAT on our farm. We do however have a lovely little new Indian Runner duck named goat.  We adopted her from another farming family who did not want to send this beautiful little duck for processing with the other meat birds they had. We are very happy that they decided to re-home her and that we were able to take her onto our homestead.  

Click HERE to watch the 10 sec clip of Goat eating breakfast!

It was cute as the animals in the duck coop tried to decide if she was going to be with the ducks or if she was going to be with the chickens. She looks so much different than the other ducks that I think it took a little time for them to recognize her as a fellow duck.

She came with a name goat because of two little markings on the top of her head when she was little. We have started calling her by the nickname Goaty but sometimes just Goat especially to trick visiting friends or family that we have a new animal on our farm until they actually see her.

The chickens that share this coop with these ducks are Sulkies, that means they are a mix between the Silky chicken and Sultan chickens. One of these little girls whose name is Inky has been very broody and now she is sitting on two chicken eggs and one duck egg.  This process takes 21 days.. We have not completely been keeping track of the days but it has definitely been more than two weeks.  We have a rooster named Cameron and a drake, which is  a male duck, named Eggbert.  We expect that the eggs are fertilized.

So we are very excited to show you a baby chick peeking out from underneath her wings very soon. We will keep you posted as soon as we find one! 

Click HERE to listen to our Khaki Campbells sing Quack-a-pella!

Post written with the help of Avalea 

Welcome Goat!

 Spring Cleaning on the Farm

Best fertilizer is the one you got.  Justin brought a couple truck loads of the sheep manure and many bucket loads of chicken manure to the garden.  A smelly job, but good for the earth.  

We found a place for the ladder.  AKA we gave Pepere Larry a couple extra odds and ends to fix up after he put up the new upstairs door.

He made the little door to match the large lower door.  It lets in a good amount more of light into the workshop  upstairs.  

The barn so far this Spring 2021.  If you do not remember what it looked like before, check out the post on The Barn; The finishing touches.

The roosters are not getting along this year as they had previously.  We have four beautiful and family friendly roosters.  It as a difficult discussion, but we have decided to give away Angus and Carliss to separate homes.  We’re hoping Jupiter and Cameron can share the rest of the space.  Please let me know if you’re interested in adopting a free rooster.  These are the two pictured above: Angus is above Carliss.

A full flock photo.  The boys are up front Lambert and Boston.  Ivy with her bell bottoms is behind them.  Nala and Natalie the Katahdin ewes to her right and the Southdown ewes to her left and in the back.  Do you know what got them to line up perfectly like this?

Yes.  They were meeting our new dog Boomer for the first time.  He sounds like his name, that’s why they all startled together. Boomer is a two year old hound mix that we adopted from the Portland Animal Shelter.

Justin has also been clearing out a new patch to the left of the barn.  This year we’ll probably have turkeys there. You can see the new open space and the large pile of lumbar up front.  I’m excited for the turkeys because we’re getting a heritage breed.  So they will be ver pretty.  Well also keep a few for breeding.  Expect lots of photos.  This spring we’re also getting some meat birds; it’s been a while since our last set.

I love early Spring flowers, it just really solidifies spring for me.  Happy Easter everyone!

Alexia made me these flowers from egg cartons and pipe cleaners.  She envisioned this craft on her own.  It was a great birthday present.  Save your quarters, she’ll be making a few bouquets worth for craft fair season.

Raising Turkeys: the Possibilities

Raising Turkeys: the Possibilities

 Five Ideas for What to Do With All That Turkey Meat.

We usually start off our year with six turkey chicks.  On average, we’ve lost one turkey per year.  It is important not to let your turkeys grow too large or they risk death by heart attack. We learned that our first year raising turkeys. This year we harvested all six turkeys.  

1: Smoke And Slice the Turkey Breast

This is a delicious and cost savings way to use your turkey.  This cold cut turkey in the deli is $9/pound at least.  By packaging these in small portions and freezing, you will be able to enjoy it all year round.

2: Turkey Pot Pie

Find yourself a delicious recipe and cook up some turkey pot pies.  We have a large family and so we use full size aluminum casserole pans to freeze for ready made meals later in the year.  The nice thing is you could make these to whatever size your family needs. This is a great use of the extra turkey bones with meat that are harder to freeze in nice sized portions.  We make these the day the turkeys come back as meat.  Many times there is extra turkey broth from this project and that also could be frozen or even canned for later meals.

3: Frying a Turkey 

This is the first year we have tried this and it was fantastic for a whole family get together.  It was fried in peanut oil for one hour and then cooled here for a good 20 minutes prior to cutting and serving.

4: The Classic Thanksgiving Turkey 

We have enjoyed home grown thanksgiving turkey a few years now.  It feels wholesome and connects this family tradition to our history laden holiday in a deeper way.  Having this with our canned vegetables is very satisfying.

5: Selling or Bartering With Other Farmers

We are blessed to have a maple syrup farmer to trade a turkey for their delicious maple syrup.  This is a relationship that has been built and have continued for the same number of years that we have raised turkeys.  We would love to continue to network with other farmers to barter for other desired items.

 

Growing Potatoes: A Traditional Maine Crop

Growing Potatoes

A Traditional Maine Crop

This Post is Co-Authored by Angela the Blogger 

and her daughter Alexia, 

who would like to be an author someday.

At planting time, the potatoes themselves are the seed.  To increase the number of plants we get and therefore the number of potatoes, we cut the biggest potatoes in half.  When we plant potatoes, we cover them up in a mound of dirt to keep them  deep and to help the plants stand up and we continue to mound them back up throughout the year.  The photo below is a young potato plant; notice the nice mound of dirt it is sitting in.

Potatoes attract potato bugs.  My siblings and I have the job of plucking the potato bugs.  We have to squish the potato bugs or else they would make their way back to the garden.  This is an important job, otherwise the leaves would be full of holes and the potato plants would not be healthy. The photo below shows the potato plants growing nicely, but there are a few leaves with holes in them; a sign the potato bugs are around and time to start searching for them.

You can tell it is harvesting time when the potato plant leaves start getting a yellowish orange hue. See the photo below for a visual on how they would look.  

When it's harvesting time, we prepare by gathering a potato rake or a hoe and some large buckets.  These tools will both be useful when we're digging for potatoes.  The first step to picking potatoes is pulling up the plants.  If there any potatoes that come up with the plant, we can pull them off and put them in the bucket. When we are done pulling up all the plants, we can use our potato rake and scrape the mound to find and potatoes that have certainly fallen off.  This job takes a few people as we don't want to miss any potatoes blending in with the dirt.  The potato rake can damage the potatoes, so we have to be careful.

When all the potatoes have been collected and are in the bucket, we set down newspaper on the cool dry garage floor where they won't be bothered.  We spread the potatoes down on the newspaper and leave them there for a couple of hours to make sure the moist dirt is dry so that it falls right off.  If this step is skipped, the potatoes would rot in their bucket or box.  This is also the time to sort our potatoes.  The little ones we use that week for a meal with boiled potatoes; straight from the garden to the plate!  The damaged ones should be used right away or cleaned up and canned.  Canning the potatoes might be an extra step now, but it's great for making a delicious brunch later in the year with the potatoes all ready to go. 

This picking season, we used some of the damaged potatoes for homemade french fries.  This is an especially nice treat for us, because we keep our fryer gluten free so that everyone in our family can enjoy it.  When we can't make our own, my husband raves about Gluten Free: Tripp's Farmhouse Cafe and Bakery in Auburn, Maine.  

Twice Baked Potatoes 

Gluten and Dairy Free

Recipe coming soon...

 

Garden Living: Processing Broccoli

Garden Living

    🥦 Processing Broccoli  🥦 

Broccoli is ready to be cut when the florets have that classic soft look.  It’s too early when it is still firm on top and too late when the flowers actually start to open into their little yellow flowers.  After you have cut the main head of broccoli, leave the trunk as you can continue to get shoots of broccoli all summer long; how much depends on the type of broccoli you have grown.

  

     

       

    
Too Early!

          Just Right!          Too Late!

                                                        

 Fresh broccoli is great right from the garden, but it does need to make one stop in a salt rinse first; we use our sink.  Any bugs or worms that are hiding in that luscious canopy will come to the surface to avoid the salty water, pluck them out and it’s ready for the pot or the fridge for another day.

Freezing broccoli for a later time: from experience, keep the stems short as the long pieces get quite firm and stringy. You could also peel the stems and freeze those in pieces. Freezing should occur the day you cut your broccoli, perhaps the next day with good results, but any later and you risk losing that fresh taste. 

Prepare your space:

• Soak your broccoli in the salt water as described above. Boil a pot of water
• Prepare an ice bath (a big bowl of icy water). You will need to have extra ice ready if you’ll be repeating this process multiple times.

Have freezer bags ready and labeled with the date.

Blanching: 

• Drop your broccoli in the boiling water and set your timer for two minutes.

• Be ready with your handled strainer.  This process from blanching to ice bath should be quick.

• Move all the broccoli to the ice bath and reset your timer for two minutes.

• Remove the broccoli from the ice bath and onto a clean dry cloth or skip this step and put them into the labeled freezer bag.

 

• Move to freezer bag and squeeze out as much water and air as possible and seal.

• Put your broccoli bags in the freezer; a deep freezer is best.

It’s great reaching into your freezer or canning shelf months from now, still eating a variety of veggies that you have preserved!  And it all started from these little plants in a well fertilized earth.

For more information on how to grow broccoli and other veggies in the garden... check out my post 

Garden Living: How to Battle the Elements.

Garden Living; Peas In a Pod

Garden Living; Peas In a Pod

How we grow and process our peas

Seedlings in the garden:

 

• We put up our posts and fencing first; you can also use a trellis.

• We plant 2 rows of peas, one on each side of the fence 1 inch apart and 1 inch deep.  

• Weed early to give your plants a chance to root.

Caring for the pea plants

Chicken Breeds; The Unique Ones and the Dependable

Backyard Chicken Breeds

The Unique Ones and The Dependable in our backyard

A chicken yard is certainly more fun when you have some handsome hens scratching around.  We really enjoy a spunky looking chicken; they hold a special spot in the flock and our hearts.  Most people begin raising chickens in their backyard for the fresh eggs. It doesn’t take too long to realize how much fun chickens really are and how it’s so easy to start raising chickens just because you love them so much.  We have always had the “feather foot” here or the “puff top” there mixed in with our more practical breeds. Since we live in Maine, we choose weather hardy chickens and good egg layers.  This year we added a new group of chicks much different then our past flocks.  Thanks to another backyard farmer, Glamour Chickens, we have introduced a fun variety of beautiful breeds to our farm.

The photo below shows the chicks on their arrival day to our farm. We were so excited to see how these girls looked full grown.  You can keep cruising down this blog to see more pictures, but the video above shows you how each chicken matured in a video format.

Serama-Cemani Mix this one is named Carless

 

Silkie-Sultan mix “Sulkies” named Angus and Isabelle

All of the chicks came with little bands on their feet to help with identification of breed and gender.  We clipped them off easily once they moved into their new coop.  These two chicks are Angus and Isabelle.. see below for their updated look a couple weeks later.

Lavendar Orpingtons

We did get a few of these birds.  They are very dependable egg layers.  As full size hens, they will be gray with a hint of lavendar.  They are a particularly popular breed of laying hens and average 200 medium sized eggs that are light brown in color. The one featured here is named Morgan.

There is also an Aracauna in our flock.

These young chickens are already getting up on their third floor perch by the fresh air.  I’m pretty impressed that these younguns were able to do that. And look at these photos below; Alexia made a swing for these new fancy chicks to play with.  They seemed to enjoy their first time giving it a try.

Jupiter is an Ayam Cemani Sizzle mix 

This baby chick is very unique and should grow up to be a curly dark hen. 

Angus Napping by Alexia

Inkie the Sulkie reminds me of the birds in Rio. Photo by Acadia.

Fuzzy Mozart: photo by Acadia and entered in 4H exhibit hall.

Fuzzy Mozart and the other chicks take a trip outside their coop and around the backyard

Jupiter up on the tower of the play set.  He was contemplating jumping off, so this photo shoot was cut short

Carless on the upturned wheelbarrow, such a natural place for a chick to hang out at the farm.

Fuzzy Mozart, getting a little blue on her cheek

                      The twins Abigail and Isabelle, we tell them apart by the color of their beaks.

Angus going for a walk.

Check back on this post... I’m sure you’re as interested as I am about how these girls will look as they age.   This year, the kids have been excited to meet this fun flock of girls.  They are such a great addition to the farm.

Cameron is a rooster strutting his stuff.

Jupiter, not all black anymore. He’s our feisty rooster!

The many nameless, Lavendar Orpingtons.  Only Morgan is named, she is plumper then the rest.  I’ll catch you a photo of her later and add it.  Morgan sleeps on the grain barrel at night.

Fuzzy Mozart all grown up: what a little fuzz ball she is.

Inky and Isabelle 

Cameron

Carless, we think is also a rooster.