We got a grain mill!

We've actually had this grain mill since mid-April, so we've been using it for about three months.

We bought the Family Grain Mill from Pleasant Hill Grain upon recommendation from our local organic grain and flour supplier, Natural Way Mills. We had been getting our whole wheat flour there, but decided to take the jump into home-grinding our grain because of the health benefits. Grinding your own flour allows you to preserve much more of the nutrients. Organic Gardening and Homesteading website mentions that within 12 hours of grinding, your wheat loses all nutrients, and that if left out over a week, becomes toxic.

Ew.

And that's why the flour you buy in the store usually contains lots of preservatives and synthetic vitamins, to prolong shelf-life, and though the flour may be kept from becoming completely "toxic," it most likely is fairly devoid of readily available nutrients that are found in freshly ground flour.

So, we made the leap to grinding our own grain.

We chose the Family Grain Mill because of the steel burrs used to grind the grain, which grind without friction and use the least amount of heat to grind the grain. Heat can destroy many nutrients in the flour. (Makes me wonder about what happens when you bake with it... but for some reason, it just makes sense not to destroy the flour's nutrients before it even gets to the oven.)

We had the option to buy a hand crank base, as well as an electric base, that hooks to the grinder, in case we'd want to grind flour without electricity. We also got the oat flaker, which takes whole oats and rolls them into oatmeal! There are other attachments, like for meat, you can buy that fit onto the electric or hand crank base. It was also fairly reasonably priced. We didn't want to get a super cheap one that was junk. It's not too loud, and not messy at all.

The option is there to do other kinds of grinding, like rice flour or cornmeal flour, or coarse-grinding grains for a chewier texture, but I've only ever adventured into using Hard Red Spring Wheat Berries and Soft White Winter Wheat Berries at the finest grind.

For the most part, I'm pretty pleased with our purchase. But I have to admit, it's taken some adjusting in how I do my baking. I still haven't completely gotten the hang of making My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe with freshly ground flour. It just makes for a denser loaf using freshly ground flour, because, at least with our grain mill, it doesn't get quite as finely ground as what we were buying pre-ground. It seems that I usually have to use a little more flour than a recipe calls for, since the flour includes the rough bran which doesn't seem to soak up liquid quite as well. For me, it's not as big of a deal, since I tend to do a lot of "this and that" adding to recipes and go a lot by the look and feel of the dough... yeah, I'm not super great and adhering to a recipe word for word, which sometimes works out great. And other times, not so much.

I've been using a soaked flour recipe that I found from The Urban Homemaker, which is modified from her Hand Method recipe here. I also make my own modifications, like using blackstrap molasses instead of honey and no dough enhancers. It makes a much lighter loaf, while also giving most of the flour a chance to soak, making it softer and more digestible.

I'm still experimenting when I can, in between all my daily tasks. I've tried to do some research on tricks to baking with freshly ground flour, but have been coming up short. So if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Pastured Chicken for Sale

Your chickens on pasture standing at the corner of their moveable pen, made by my husband, Jeff.

The chickens have access to grass and fresh air, and are moved daily to fresh green pasture.

Why buy our local pastured poultry?

• Their taste is comparable to none
• They are fed GMO-free feed
• They taste great
• They scavenge the ground for their own grass and bugs
• Their natural flavor will have you begging for more
• They are free of synthetic hormones, anti-biotics, and vaccines
• They are processed on-site
• Did I mention that they taste better than store bought chicken?
• All of this adds up to a healthier, more nutritious bird, which is all around better for you!

The price is $2.75/lb, dressed weight, with the birds averaging 4-5 pounds each.

If you live in the area, and are interested in coming to visit, please give us a call and let us know when you plan to stop by. Also, if you are interested in ordering, call 218-425-7532.

We will arrange several days for butchering beginning of July, which will also be the pick-up days. It will be fresh! To help keep our costs low, we have decided to have the customers bring their own packaging. A plastic gallon bag per chicken should be sufficient.

If you still aren't sure what the difference is between pastured home-grown chicken and factory-raised chicken, or aren't convinced of pastured chicken's benefits, I found this chart on someone else's homepage who also does pastured poultry. It plainly lays out the differences, which to me clearly points out the superior choice.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Come see our farm!

Okay, so it's been over a month since I blogged. It's not that I didn't want to. It's just that I've been a tad bit busy.

We've transitioned over to the "river house" (dubbed that because our house is next to a river) from the "log cabin house" (well, it's a log cabin!). There are a few items still at the log cabin house (like the really good chicken manure/compost from the chicken coop that we need to add to our garden), but by and large, we've gotten all moved.

Speaking of the garden, we've gotten a big plot tilled, but up here in northern Minnesota, it's taking a while to warm up. The last frost date is June 6, or thereabouts, so it's not like we're in a super rush. We will probably get some cold-hardy things in this upcoming week if we can, like potatoes and onions. Our attempt at doing transplants is not the greatest, one of those things that I'll just have to practice and improve on over time. But we do have two greenhouses within 5 miles of us, so we'll probably patronize them considering our sad looking starts.

We planted some asparagus roots, as well as transplanted some rhubarb.

We've also added to our collection of animals.

• Currently, we have approximately 300 baby chicks of various breeds and assorted sizes (red broilers that we got first, cornish cross, and ameraucanas which will add to our laying hen stock in the future), and 18 turkey poults. Oh, and by the way, these will be up for sale in a couple months, so does anyone want to buy some chicken?? :-) Their feed is GMO free, and once my husband can get his moveable chicken pens built, the first group of chicks is going on pasture soon.
  
  These are some cornish cross chicks, just 3 or 4 days old.
  
Turkey poults huddled by light for a nap. They like to do that. One may think that since they are huddled, they are too cold, but they are fine. They run around outside the pen other parts of the day with no problems.

These are some red broilers, kind of hard to see. But I wanted to show you their brooder box that my talented husband built. They are soon ready to move out into their chicken tractor.

A view of our garage. Jeff built all these pens. The farthest one is the red broiler pen where they got moved to at 2 weeks. The left is the cornish cross' pen. The right one is the turkey poults' pen. We had the turkeys and red broilers together for about 2 weeks, but at that point it was time to separate them as the broilers were growing so much faster than the turkeys, it just seemed to work better this way.

The moveable chicken pen. Once planting season is done, he needs to make more...



• The pigs are helping to till up our garden right now. We have five, one is a runt, I know. Maybe Wilbur will find a spider named Charlotte.... We plan to put them on pasture within an electric fence, and give them screenings from a local mill and whatever else we round up. But for now, they're small enough to fit inside this re-purposed chicken tractor.
Andrew loves to watch them. He also figured out to not stick your finger in the holes. They bite.



• Albert, our puppy. He's cute and cuddly, and well... a puppy. I have to say, I'm still more of a cat person. I like the independent nature of the cat. Puppies insist on being right in the middle of what you're doing, and get soooo excited about everything. So our hope for Mr. Albert is to grow up to be The Great Protector of our life and liberty, fending off the wild animals of northern Minnesota. He's half Golden Lab, half Great Pyrenees... Great Pyrenees are supposed to be good guard dogs, especially of lifestock. But for now, he's Albert, the puppy, who pulls laundry off the line and follows you around, trying to jump up on you.
  • 

• Two cats, Creamy and Smokey... and Smokey is a girl who appears to be ready to have kittens soon. Oy vey. The third cat could not be caught, so Sharpy will be fending for himself somewhere else.
• And I can't forget our 18 laying hens (and three roosters will will find themselves in our crockpot soon). They went back into their A-frame outdoor chicken tractor. Currently, they're giving us anywhere between 8 and 12 eggs a day. We personally eat a lot of eggs ourselves, and use some to feed to the baby chicks for additional nutrition. But we hope to increase our egg output with the addition of more laying hens, c'mon Ameraucanas!

And the boys, are doing pretty well. They enjoy all the animals and being outside with Daddy while he's working on his different projects around here. Judah had a little trouble with the transition to the new house, but seems to be adjusting alright. Spring planting started a few days ago, so Jeff's been working a lot for the farmer. It's finally been beautiful and warm, and so it's hard to keep the boys inside.

Andrew likes to play in the sawdust.

They love being outside!

Their dad hooked this together. Judah does really well riding the bike!

We were having fun with the timer on the camera.

5/16/11 -- 20 weeks

As always, I'm still fiddling in the kitchen, but that will have to wait for another post. Until next time...

Healthy Candy Bars

Yeah, you read that right. I said "healthy" and "candy bars" together.

We recently got a new shipment of coconut oil, we had been "almost out" for a while. I'm one of those people who stretches and stretches the last little bit to make it last a long time... to a point of ridiculousness.

So when we got some more coconut oil, I had to make these "Mounds" Candy Bars from The Nourishing Gourmet's blog. I've made them before, and they're a great way to help us get more coconut oil into ourselves. Sometimes I don't always feel up to just eating a big spoonful of coconut oil--although my boys would eat it by the spoonful if I let them!

Here's the recipe copied from her blog, with my comments in italics.

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“Mounds” Candy Bars-makes 12, large; or 24 mini, which is what I like to do

1 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 1/2 cup of coconut oil 1/4 cup of honey (raw is nice) 1 teaspoon almond extract 36 almonds, left whole or chopped (your choice) --I had cashews, so that's what I used instead this time around

1-Melt the coconut oil and honey over low heat until just melted. Whisk to combine. Add the almond extract and coconut flakes.

2-Now take out your muffin tins (you will need a 12 compartment muffin tin). In each compartment, place three almonds, or divide the chopped almonds. I wasn't so exacting, just dumped some nut pieces in the bottom of each of the 24 cups. Then, divide the coconut mixture, making sure you get an even mixture of coconut flakes and coconut oil. Place in a freezer (make sure it’s on a flat surface), and freeze until hard (about 30 minutes)

Now it’s time for the chocolate! You will need:

3/4 cup cocoa powder (not dutch cocoa) 1/4 cup of honey (I used a scant 1/4 of a cup) 1 cup coconut oil 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-Combine these ingredients in a 2 cup glass measuring glass and place in a pot of simmering water. Heat until everything is just melted, and remove from heat. Either whisk briskly, or use a hand blender to combine well (the hand blender is the easiest way to do this).

4-Take out the frozen coconut flakes mixture, and divide your chocolate mixture over it (about two tablespoons per muffin compartment).

5-Put back into your freezer, and freeze until hard (again, about 30 minutes). To get them out, simply slide a butter knife down one side, and pop it out. This is very easy to do, as long as you do it directly from your freezer.

Then, enjoy! (and keep them frozen, they melt fairly quickly)

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When I was popping these out of the pan today, it was probably a bit silly to watch me clean up. It was so good, I didn't want to have any go to waste, so I was practically licking out the compartments. That might be thrifty to the extreme....

Also, a note on why coconut oil is so good for you. It's hard for me to quickly sum up its benefits, so I recommend reading some books like "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" by Sallon Fallon and Mary Enig, or "The Coconut Oil Miracle" by Bruce Fife. Those really explain why a saturated fat like coconut oil is so healthy for us. But a cursory list would include such benefits as: promotes weight loss, improves digestion, helps boost the immune system, and helps prevent against degenerative diseases. I encourage you do to some research and you will be amazed at the benefits of coconut oil.

Lots of news

I've been sitting on some information for a while, biding my time until I felt like I could share.

First, we're going to be closing on a house this Friday, March 25. Yes, our time in the log cabin is coming to an end. It's been fun, but I must say, the novelty is wearing off. The holes between the logs, the days when the wind blows down the fireplace and smokes up the house so we can't use the fireplace, the two levels that constantly need policing with two busy boys... we are ready to call some place our "own". It has three acres, not as much as we'd like, but we have big plans for those acres, which I'll share with you as we progress into summer. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen with lots of storage, small dining room and a nice big living room. There are two entryway closets, big basement, two door detached garage. The house is a bit dated, old wallpaper and flooring, but easily and quickly fixable. We have until end of April to be out of the log cabin and all moved in.

Second piece of news, we have a permanent location for church. Instead of floating around from restaurant to restaurant, we have a month-to-month lease for a room in the basement of the old courthouse in Roseau. It's not free, but $25/week is about as good as we'll get to have a place to call our "own".

Third, we'll have a third baby to call our "own" beginning of October. I am 13 weeks along as of March 28. I don't think the reality of it has sunk in yet, but there's a reason it takes nine months! I had much stronger morning sickness with this baby than with my two boys, so I'm wondering if it's a girl...? Well, we'll all be surprised together when he/she arrives. But now I'm finally feeling "normal".

I think that's about all the news for now. I think I should be packing or something.... ;-)

Tapioca Pudding

Here's one of my favorite desserts out of Nourishing Traditions. I usually 1.5 the recipe, but here's the original measurements. I also change up the sweetener, usually using honey or maple syrup, and I rarely use the full amount, usually halving it. I think I've become accustomed to things tasting less sweet, so keep that in mind.

Tapioca Pudding

Serves 8

1 c. medium or small pearl tapioca

4 cups whole milk

3 eggs, separated, at room temperature

1/2 t. sea salt

3/4 c. Rapadura

grated rind of 1 lemon

pinch of sea salt

Soak tapioca in milk overnight in the refrigerator. In a separate bowl, blend egg yolks, salt, rapadura and lemon rind. Cook tapioca about 45 minutes in a double boiler over simmering water until very thick, stirring almost constantly with a whisk toward the end of thickening. (I don't have a double boiler that big, so I will either fit one of my smaller pots into a bigger pot with water in it, OR just use a pot straight on the stove-top but keep the temperature very low.) Add a spoonful of hot tapioca to egg yolk mixture and then add warmed egg yolk mixture to the tapioca. Cook about 5 minutes more over simmering water, stirring constantly. Beat egg whites with sea salt until softly stiff and fold into tapioca mixture. Serve well chilled.

Note: I grate the rind off my lemons whenever I use them, and keep the grated rind in the freezer for such a recipe as this!

Citrus Extract

We received a great book at Christmas called The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 10th ed. This book is "the original manual for living off the land and doing it yourself." 'Nough said.

One of the recipes in it was for making citrus extract. At the time that I started this project, I believe it was end of January, early February, and we had some oranges left from a bulk purchase made in December. And I thought, perfect! Between this recipe, and citrus vinegar, I'll be able to squeeze the life out of these oranges yet!

Citrus Extract (p. 382)

1. Peel away the fruit's outermost skin, called the zest. (There's a special tool for this at kitchen stores.) Don't use any of the white pith.
2. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle one-third of the way up with zest.
3. Pour in vodka for the other two-thirds. Soak 2 weeks, shaking twice daily.
4. Strain and bottle your extract.

My notes:

• On zesting your citrus--I have a shredder that has three different sizes of holes. I had been using the smallest zesting holes, which took me forever. An actual zesting tool probably would work better than my awkward stand, I'd guess. I zested a couple oranges a day, then had to stop and rest, and did a few more the next day, just refrigerating my zest in between. And I kept zesting until I had filled my jar 1/3 full. I think I used 10 oranges, maybe? Later, my husband informed me as he zested a lemon, that the next size up of holes worked much easier. Lesson learned!
• Citrus to use--I only used oranges, but you could probably use lemons and limes, too. I don't think I'd use grapefruit, as I'm guessing it's probably too bitter. But I could be wrong, I haven't tried it!
• I was not religious about shaking the bottle, and I only recently strained the zest off, and it's been nearly two months. It smells good, and I'm looking forward to using it in... something. I'll figure something out.
• You could probably save up zest for a long time. We juice lemons often to make our kefir soda, and we started washing the skins well then zesting the lemons and putting the zest in the freezer. Then, whenever a recipe calls for it, I can pull zest out of the freezer. Lemon zest really adds a lot of flavor, by the way!