Fall Farm Fun–This Saturday

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You have read my posts.  Perhaps you have stopped by for eggs or chickens or pork.  Or maybe you have just wondered what Love Led Farm is all about.

This Saturday, November 6, we are are inviting you to join us for a bit of fun.  Between the hours of 2 and 4 pm, we will open our farm shop and our barns to you, our guests, with a warm and tasty welcome.

Sample Call Ahead Breads from Love Led Farm and gluten free delights from Flourful Bake Shop.  Sip warm cider and hot cocoa.  Ever tried cold goat milk?

How about feeding some animals?  Stroll past the duck house.  Walk into the barn to visit the chickens.  Say hi to the goats.  We’ll have treats that you can share with them.

At 3 pm, follow Beekeepers David and Meg to the back pasture and watch as they winterize the hives.  What would you like to know about bees and honey?

Throughout the year, I share Love Led Farm through stories and product updates.  Now, we want you to experience our farm for yourselves.

So, please, take a bit of time this Saturday to join us as we celebrate another great farm year and YOU!

It’s our gift to you, our friends, of Love Led Farm!

Warmly,

 

 

 

Hoping for Honey

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With Love Led Farm pork and chicken heading for our freezers, let’s talk about a sweeter subject.

Honey

In our family, everybody has an important job to do.  David (my husband) and Megan (our middle daughter) are the beekeepers.

Checking the hives while the rest of us watch from a safe distance

This weekend, they will suit up once more to check the status of the hives.  That will answer the big question:  Will there be honey to sell this year?

One would think that keeping bees is easy.  You stick a couple of hives out in the back pasture, wait all summer, and then scoop out the golden treasure each autumn, right?

Wrong…so wrong.  Successful honey production depends on many factors.  Did the queen bee stay alive?  Did the bees leave due to overcrowding?  What about the fertilizers used on neighboring farms?  Mites?  I will not bore you with all the things that can go wrong throughout the year.

So when David and Meg open those hives and see enough honey to harvest, it actually brings a few tears of joy to our eyes….and cheers from the 4 cousins who are standing safely in the neighboring pasture.

Next week, I will update you on what our beekeepers found when they opened the hives.  And hopefully, I will give you a date early in October, when you will be able to enjoy your own bottles of Love Led Farm honey.

Bread

I did promise to mention the other Love Led Farm product that becomes available each fall:  homemade bread.

The scent of bread just out of the oven–heavenly!

Since I like to keep these posts fairly short, consider this a teaser.  I make some of the most delicious breads you will ever have the chance to taste.  And, I just happen to have a daughter (who is also a beekeeper) who is launching her own gluten-free bakery.

Is that enough to keep you watching for future posts?  More information and maybe a taste test will be coming soon…from our farm to you.

Warmly,

Introducing Breads from Love Led Farm

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I love bread making!  But David avoids most gluten and I certainly don’t need to eat whole loaves by myself so who can I possible make bread for?  How about for you?

Presenting Breads from Love Led Farm.  How about Oatmeal and Honey Bread, made with unbleached flour, olive oil, and raw honey?  Apple and Pumpkin breads made with raw sugar and sunflower oil?  Cinnamon Bread that tastes like a cinnamon roll?  Sourdough Einkorn Bread, made with this precious ancient grain?  Can you smell and taste the goodness yet?

During the holiday season, we will introduce these breads and more on two special days:

Saturday, November 30:  Come by the farm from 1 pm – 4 pm for Gingerbread Day.  Besides a warm cup of spiced cider and fresh gingerbread cookies, you will find an assortment of breads and other products waiting for you–perfect for holiday parties or gift giving.

Saturday, December 21:  Need a last minute gift for someone who has everything?  How does a Bread and Honey Basket sound?  And for your family–how about homemade Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas morning?   Once again, we will open our doors from 1 pm – 4 pm so you can conveniently stop by.

Homemade bread is on our menu for next year.  As our plans unfold, watch for more articles, and let me know what types of breads you would love to find on a weekly basis or for special occasions.

Sharing our blessings and bounty; serving our family and farm friends like you.  That’s what Love Led Farm is all about.

Warmly,

Robin

 

Pig Tales

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Oliver burst into our kitchen and flung his red and blue wallet on the countertop.  “Here’s all my money!” he triumphantly announced.  With those words, he carefully withdrew the dollars he had been earning and saving since last year.  It was more than enough, so we counted out the change and he tucked the $75 dollars he would need back into his wallet.  The Day was finally here!  It  was time to ride with Papa to the Farmer John’s house to choose and buy his new pig.

An hour later, an elated six-year-old returned and with Papa’s help, introduced this year’s pork makers to their new home.  Several hours later, Oliver’s parents convinced him that it really was time to go home and I assured him that he could visit and work with the pigs any time he wanted.  And he will be back…as often as he can talk a parental driver into making the trip.

Our baby pigs have arrived!  And yes, they have names.  Oliver’s black hog is Noodle, Arya wanted to name hers Peppa–thankfully one just happened to be a girl–and a phone call later, we learned that Eisley wanted to name the third black and white one, Panda.  How appropriate!

Panda and Peppa

At Love Led Farm, we do things a bit differently.  Ignoring the advice to never name your animals, we choose to allow a more personal relationship–except perhaps with the chickens.  Each family member, down to the very youngest, knows that the purpose of our farm is to raise food for other people which means that most of the livestock will be gone by winter.  Still, we pet and talk to the lambs, leash walk the baby goats, and a certain little boy lives his summer climbing the fence and running through the pasture with his pigs.

Oliver and Noodle

 

At Love Led Farm we provide meat, eggs, goats for herd shares, and a memorable place for your family to experience and enjoy.  Visit us and let us know what we can provide for you.

Warmly,

A Time for Thankfulness

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Perhaps this is a teaser:  I have another soup recipe for you and will share it….next week.  But today, I am being led in different direction.

It is no secret that the pace of a farm is hectic for most of the year.  In these final weeks before snow flies and the ground freezes, our to-do list far outweighs our available hours and  manpower.  This morning, as I was preparing for yet another high-speed day, the Voice I depend upon whispered rather loudly, “Be Thankful.”

“Hmm, ” I acknowledged.  “As usual, You are so right!  I need to stop and be thankful….how about next month?”

“Check your calendar,” He said.

A quick glance reminded me that November first was….tomorrow…which is now today.  How timely!  Was this a coincidence?  I hardly think so.

And so, I am about to begin a new adventure which I am calling, Thirty Days of Thankfulness.   If you would care to join me, I will post pictures and prose on Instagram and will share them to Facebook each day for the month of November.  If you don’t follow Love Led Farm on Instagram yet, consider this your invitation to do so or invite someone who would also enjoy these posts.  And if you would really like to participate, why not add your own thoughts of thankfulness?

Joyful hearts begin with thankful hearts.  Let’s all take a break from Life to be grateful for the limitless blessings that we enjoy each day.

Dying Brown Eggs

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Will I ever outgrow the fun of coloring Easter eggs?  Not as long as I have family around.  Even after the girls left home, one or more of them would gather around the table a few days before Easter to plunge 2 dozen boiled white eggs into a rainbow of colors.  White eggs?

The breeds of hens that I raise lay brown eggs.  And  like most people, I assumed that dying them would be a problem.  So each year, I have dutifully made my way to the supermarket’s egg display to buy my sale-priced, 2 dozen, white eggs while my hens produced dozens of beautiful eggs–mine for the taking.  Not this year.

I recently read an article on dying brown eggs and decided to give it a try.  I purchased the same cheap dye kit that we have always used and hard boiled the eggs just like always.

Here are the results.

Are you surprised?  Me too!  The colors are actually more vibrant and have a beautiful sheen.  Thinking that brown eggs might need a longer soaking time to absorb the color, I left the first 6 in the color cups for about 5 minutes; the second 6 for only 2 or 3 minutes.  There was no noticeable difference.

As my husband admired the eggs, he asked the question that is on all of our minds:  “So with white eggs being less than a dollar and brown eggs being $3.50, why would anybody want to spend the money to dye them?”   And, if all they will be used for is an egg hunt, okay, I might agree.

But I want to eat these eggs, while maintaining our healthy food choices. Deviled eggs, egg salad, dipped in a bit of salt, we love hard-boiled eggs.   Yes, I want to be able to have my colored egg and eat it, too!  This year I have learned that I don’t have to compromise which makes me feel pretty good about serving them to those I love.

Happy Easter, Everybody!  Remember…the holiday isn’t about a bunny.  It’s about a Lamb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Reminder

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When our grandchildren come, the world stops.  And this is a very good thing, especially in August when our farming world is spinning so wildly that we ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?”  In August, harvesting and preserving begin in earnest.  We have more chickens than we can possibly count.  The baby goats are no longer so little and cute–they are big and hungry.  And the race is on to finish far too many projects before the snow flies.

Last week, all four grandchildren were here for several days–Cousin Camp.  For a week, the world stopped and by the time they left and life regained its speed, we remembered why we have this special place called Love Led Farm.

The Four Day Chicken–And Then of Course, There’s Soup

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What would a four-day chicken challenge be without including the comfort of soup?  I hardly think I need to include a recipe since everyone has their own version–just like grandma used to make, right?  But since boring and bland are not tastes I want coming from my kitchen, I have added a few twists to make this soup oh, so very nice.

For starters, I actually started the soup on Day One of my challenge.  After removing most of the meat from my roasted chicken, I put the bones back into my cast iron dutch oven along with the giblets which I had kept just for stock.  I added a quartered onion, 2 large stalks of celery cut into large pieces, 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 large carrots cut into chunks.  I covered this with water–about 8 cups–and allowed it simmer for a couple of hours.  By that time, I was ready for bed so I refrigerated the whole thing.

The next day, I skimmed off most of the fat and removed all remaining meat from the bones.  If I only wanted the broth, I would have reheated the pot just until the juices had liquefied, and would then have strained it through cheesecloth in my colander. Then I would have divided the clarified broth into freezer containers for later use.

 

Some vegetable pastas get mushy when reheated so if you are freezing your leftover soup, remove the remaining noodles.  In a later post, I’ll teach you how to freeze and reheat them successfully.

Now that I have reached the end of my four-day challenge, it is your turn.  How do you cook your pastured chicken?  What do you do with the leftovers?  What ideas, tips, and secrets can you share?  Cooking and learning together is fun and motivates us all to make wiser, healthier choices in delicious ways.

 

Freedom

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Each week I eagerly write about chickens, and goats–what-to-buys and what-to-dos.  But occasionally, it seems appropriate to switch from “telling and selling,” to “thinking and thanking.”

Several years ago, we spent some time in a third world country where the poor still live in garbage dumps and the rich live in houses surrounded by barbed wire and machine-gun armed guards.  Our hosts, who were considered wealthy in their town, sparsely furnished their home with furniture we would consider garage sale quality.  They gladly cooked all day to provide our meager meals of tortillas, beans, and rice.  I will never forget watching children in one remote village where we served, playing delightedly with a plastic bag that once contained the ration of rice we had brought for them.  The bag was their new toy, and they were both grateful for it and content with it.  What I witnessed was life changing and I returned to our United States of America with a new pair of eyes.

I have so much.  I live in a country where I am free to dream a potentially reachable dream,  freedom to choose my lifestyle, my occupation, my home, and my food.   No one tells me what to raise on my farm; I have no government-regulated quotas to fill; I can grow and raise as much as I want and then stop if I choose.

Through the sacrifices of others I gained those choices–not only the freedom to pursue dreams and a lifestyle, but also the freedom to choose contentment:  to say, “I have plenty–in fact, I have more than enough.

So as we stop to celebrate our nation’s independence, won’t you join me by stopping to think and thank?  In this nation, imperfect as it is, what do you have for which you are grateful?  Who paid the price for your freedom?  For your choices?  For your plenty?  Somebody did.  Have you thanked them?

To all of you who have joined hands and hearts to preserve and protect this great land, we at Love Led Farm say, “Thank You!”

Happy Birthday, America!

 

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