Bone meal

In the process of trying to learn how to use everything (or at least leave as little waste as I can), I started thinking about the bones and veggies left over when I made stock. A few months ago I searched high and low, and while I can't remember or find the exact links now, this is what I came up with.

I took the bones out of the stock and set them on a baking sheet,just a small one from an old toaster oven. (I noticed when I took them out that the bones were VERY soft, and this will be important later on in this post.) So then I just let the bones sit out on top of our toaster oven. We don't have a microwave, so the toaster oven is our go-to appliance. Every time we used it, the bones heated and dried out. I left them there for many months, although they were probably ready after about one month. First, they got really hard. It was when the bones moved past this phase and into brittle that they were ready for grinding.

They were brittle enough to grind into a fine powder with my little kitchen food processor. It took a few minutes, but it was certainly easy. Then I dumped it into a bag and it was ready to go.

Yep, a plastic baggie. I said I'm working on no waste, not that I've gotten there!! But it's all ready to go out onto my garden when spring fully arrives.

Remember how I mentioned that the bones were really soft when I first took them out of the broth? Then they hardened as they dried? Well, that got me thinking. What if I just ground them up, veggies and all, then threw it on the compost pile? I know that meat and the like can attract unsavory critters, but a small amount, well buried, seems like it should compost quickly enough to avoid the problem. So when I had another pile of stock leftovers this morning, I decided to try it.

I took my freshly drained stock leftovers and a little water and tossed it all into the blender. It took only a few seconds to puree.

It looks gross, but it smelled just like stock. This could easily be buried in a compost pile. Which is better? That depends. Time wise, they both took minutes. The dry meal has to dry, but that's just sitting time. The wet meal has to compost. So the work is really a matter of now or later? The end product is different, compost vs a dry, storable bone meal. So it mostly depends what type you'd prefer. The nutrients get into the garden either way. Your personal tolerance for bones drying in the kitchen or the risk of pests in the compost pile factors in as well. Ultimately, though, both are easy ways to use those leftover bones and turn them into good garden food!

Happy farming!

Sprouts and first spring flowers!

My gourd seeds are sprouting, much sooner than I expected. I'm so relieved that I didn't cause them to rot by soaking them for two days instead of one! I planted three seeds and have two big sprouts...

 ... and one little one! It's just about ready to poke out.

Spring is springing here, slowly. We're getting a lot of cold then warm then cold again weather. My early flowers are starting to show themselves though.

 This is our little patch of crocus. It started out as a single flower blooming in the middle of the lawn the first few years we lived here. I have no idea who planted a single crocus bulb in the middle of the lawn or why- maybe a squirrel?- but it comes up every year, and lately has been multiplying. About three years ago we got two blooms, then three, and last year we had four. This year we have eleven!

And the Wolf's Bane is up as well. Every year I want to get a picture, and every year I put it off because it's too cold, and then the blooms are gone. I finally got one this year! Usually the little yellow blooms are poking out of a blanket of snow, but we've had a mild winter this year.

Happy Farming! And Happy Spring!

Gourds

I decided to try starting my gourd seeds indoors this year. I'm a horrible seed-starter, so I try to directly sow everything outside. Unfortunately, Wisconsin doesn't have the longest growing season, so I had to try something to extend the season. Before I did anything, though, I naturally got a gourd book at the library!


Gourds in Your Garden is the book I picked. It focuses on growing decorative gourds, big and small, and the luffa type gourds (which is what I'm growing.) If you're looking to grow pumpkins or other squashes, which are apparently sometimes referred to as gourds- I didn't know that!- this isn't the book. But there is tons of great information that was easily digested by a novice gourd-grower like me.

Armed with my new gourd knowledge, I soaked my seeds overnight (for two nights, accidentally. Oops!) and then planted them in an old food container with a clear lid. Then I put them in the window. Gourd seeds can take a long time to germinate, weeks sometimes, so I don't expect anything to happen soon. Just crossing my fingers and waiting for now.

Happy Farming!

Seed Storage

I finally decided that I will have a garden this year, despite the baby coming. I'm going to keep it small, and mostly grow the easy, "indestructible" plants. I also finally ordered some new seeds from Baker Creek Seeds, my favorite seed company. I ordered a pink radish and some luffa gourds. I ordered red noodle beans, too, but I had waited too long and they were out. I'll have to order earlier next year. I haven't grown radish, but I expect those to qualify as indestructible. The luffa gourds will require some work, especially in my shortish growing season, but I can't NOT grow the new seeds, right?

Anyway, on to the seed storage box! I borrowed heavily from these two seed storage posts at Homestead Revival and Chiot's Run. So thank you so much for posting!

I decided to use a photo storage box for my seed storage, mostly because they're inexpensive and readily available. I'd also hoped it would be easy to find a folder template to fit inside, but that was not to be.

To make the folders, I ended up tracing the paper separator cards that came with the box. I folded a piece of cardstock in half and traced the card, with the bottom on the fold. I cut it out and had a template for my folders. I made as many as I needed, folding them in opposite directions so the tabs would alternate. 

I taped the sides of the folders to create pockets. Then I made a sheet for the front. I decided that the only info I needed on the folder was the variety and the year. Any other relevant information I intend to keep in my Garden Journal, which I hope to be posting about soon! The sheets are held to the folders with a paperclip.

Part of me wants to tell you that I worked really hard measuring and tweaking the designs, but honestly, it was by pure dumb luck that my Cricut seed packets fit perfectly in these folders when standing on end.

Happy Farming!

Christmas, Canners and Cows!

Merry Christmas!!

One of my favorite gifts this year is my pressure canner from my mom. I've tried my hand at water bath canning- only once- and it went well, but for most veggies a pressure canner is required. I can't wait to try it out. My husband got me the accessory kit, which will make canning much easier!

I also finished a book I was reading called the Family Cow Handbook.

I enjoyed the book immensely, since it mostly centered around keeping a single cow on pasture, which is what we'd like to do. I enjoy reading all livestock books, but so many seem built around monoculture, large herds, and confinement barns, which is not at all how I'd like to raise my animals. It was great to read a book for the small homestead cow-keeper. The book was also full of different ways to use all of the milk a cow can provide. One bit of discordance I found, though, was that while the author promoted the drinking of raw milk, all of the recipes for cheese and yogurt required pasteurizing the milk. I don't know much about cheesemaking yet, but I know that yogurt can be made from raw milk. Here's a great recipe.

Happy Farming!

Seed Packets with the Cricut Cutter

I decided the other day that I really needed to organize my seed packets. They were being stored in baggies in my fridge. The whole organization process will be several posts, but to start, here is how I made my super cute seed packets to replace the leaky white envelopes many of my seeds had been stored in.

I used extra scrapbook paper I had lying around. I cut the sheets into 6" by 7" sheets to minimize waste. I have the older, first generation Cricut, so that limits my cutting size. I used the Wild Card cartridge, using the Booklet envelope (<boklet-s>) at 5.5" with the Real Dial Size on. I liked the look of the cutout leaves on the flap, but you could always cut it in blackout mode if you don't like it. 

Once I had my packets cut out, all I did was assemble them with double sided tape, and add some white sticky labels to the front to write on. To add some interest, I let my 7 year old stamp on the labels before I put them on the packets. It was that simple.

Happy Farming!!

Blacksmithing

The other day, Chris expressed an interest in blacksmithing when we got our farm. So when I went to the library, I picked up a couple of books on the subject.



The first one was The Backyard Blacksmith. Definitely a book for beginners, which was perfect for us! Very thorough with detailed explanations of techniques. The only problem we found with the book was that it tended to focus on decorative projects, rather than the farm-type projects we would find useful. Otherwise, it was an amazing book and a perfect introduction for a beginner.



The other book I grabbed was Farm Blacksmithing. This book was really a collection of articles. Great information. The prices were outdated, but the information wasn't. Not too much has changed about blacksmithing in a couple hundred years, so old information is still useful. The projects were much more useful to us, ranging from hooks and staples to chain and files.

While my mind was mulling blacksmithing, I found this article from Popular Mechanics. Basic blacksmithing, including how to build a forge from recycled or repurposed items. Awesome! Overall, it was a great introduction to the topic and we learned a lot. Mostly that a smithy is something that will definitely have a place on our farm!

Happy Farming!