We realized just before getting the prized pumpkin home that we’ve exhausted our frozen abundance of pumpkiny goodness from last year and *gasp* in our blur of activity this growing season I’ve overlooked planting pie pumpkin! Actually we didn’t even plant the huge field of pumpkin & squash at all this year. No time. 

Plus, we had truckloads of pumpkin last year, more than we could sell or eat so the livestock ate fall pumpkiny goodness through much of the winter!

Our basement is quite ideal for pumpkin and squash storage so we put up lots of spaghetti squash, butternut, sweet meat squash, pie pumpkin and of course fairytale pumpkin. Our last years harvests are still keeping great down there almost a year later but the supply is quite low. All we have left is spaghetti squash, one sweat meat squash and the fairytale pumpkin we just got back from the fair.

We have several pumpkin and squash plants slowly growing around the house this year but they are first for our CSA families shares, if we have extra we’ll put some up in the basement for ourselves… And suddenly I’m in a fall pumpkin panic! I actually blame the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte I had last monday (I know, I get crunchy shame for drinking it. I’m fine with that, it was soooo good).

In the fall we do basically everything pumpkin. The first scents and tastes of pumpkin send me straight into an excited holiday prep countdown. I love fall. We eat pumpkin donuts, drink pumpkin coffee, make pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie of course- so not having an abundance of pumpkin kind of worries me!

Just to be sure we had pumpkin on hand for the future I set out to preserve our fairytale pumpkin and sweet meat squash. FYI: Sweet meat has “squash” in the name but it’s actually interchangeable as a pumpkin in all pumpkin baking recipes, read more about it here. It’s sweet and just as good as a pie pumpkin. 

So far I’ve gotten halfway through doing the sweet meat and I’m beat! It is a whopping 16 pounds and did I mention it’s almost a year old? I peeled and chopped 8 pounds of it so far and got 7 quart sized jars full of pumpkin cubes.

I think I’ll hold off a bit on doing the fairytale pumpkin because it weighs about 55 pounds… I don’t have that many canning jars or that much time currently. I’m secretly hoping the fairytale pumpkin just keeps until November when we can eat from it all month, I’m sure it will

For those of you interested in preserving your own pumpkin I used the following pumpkin canning procedure from http://www.sbcanning.com/2011/10/canning-for-fall-squash-pumpkin-and.html

Pie Pumpkins & Winter Squash Canning
These are from the National Center for Home Preserving website. 

Quality: Pumpkins and squash should have a hard rind and stringless, mature pulp of ideal quality for cooking fresh. Small size pumpkins (sugar or pie varieties) make better products. For why we say not to mash or puree the squash, read more about the caution.

Procedure: Wash, remove seeds, cut into 1-inch- wide slices, and peel. Cut flesh into 1-inch cubes. Boil 2 minutes in water. Caution: Do not mash or puree. Fill jars with cubes and cooking liquid, leaving 1-inch headspace.  For making pies, drain jars and strain or sieve cubes.

Process in pressure canner – 55 minutes for pints 90 mins for quarts at 10lbs pressure.
Process in pressure canner – 55 minutes for pints 90 mins for quarts at 11bs pressure.
 

What is your favorite sight, smell or fall tradition, is it pumpkin?

The post Canning Fairytale Pumpkin and Sweet Meat Squash appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I’ve never felt inclined to make butter myself. Yet I LOVE me some raw butter and as of late it’s been pretty hard to come by… and it so good for you.

The most healthful raw butter is a springtime commodity in the milking world.

Cows fed on rapidly growing spring grass produce milk that contains high levels of beta carotene and five times the amount of CLA, an essential fatty acid that has a strong anti-cancer properties. 

The beta-carotene in grass-fed raw dairy is most evident in butter that is a rich deep yellow color.  Grain-fed cows produce a butter that looks white.

Some of you also know that raw butter is a nutritional powerhouse according to Weston A. Price and his work, it is a source of “Factor X”. The “Price Factor X”  (now believed to be vitamin K₂) is only found in raw grass-fed milk butterfat, fish eggs, and the organs and fats of animals. It is how you can heal cavities with nutrition.

Our raw butter source has always been an Amish farmer, the same one we get our pork from. Our Amish farmer knows to make loads of butter in the spring, in fact, he only makes it in the spring! He then freezes it and sells it off to those interested in it. Sadly, he has been out of butter since the fall. Gasp!

We are swimming in raw milk right now because I’ve started a dairy detox to see if it helps Grayson’s newly developed symptoms and Everly is possibly reacting to dairy also. However, we have a gallon of raw milk coming to us each week via our cow share… so I’m exploring dairy preservation techniques!

We are making greek yogurt with the raw milk but are still swimming in it so I gave butter making a try this week. Butter is made from the cream that sits at the top of your raw, undisturbed milk. Skimming cream is easy and doesn’t require any fancy equipment! Keep your milk in a wide mouthed container and when you see the cream separated at the top (it will separate in the fridge or on the counter if it is undisturbed) just use a ladle and scoop the cream off the top.

Put your skimmed cream in a food processor. You can also try a blender or mixer. I started out trying my experiment in a blender and wasn’t too impressed and I hear the mixer can result in a messy process.

Return the butter solids to your bowl and press the chunks together with a wooden spoon, you’ll notice more liquid coming from the solids, more buttermilk. Pour off the liquid periodically. Keep doing this until your butter is liquid free.

Some folks say you should ice wash the butter next, so it keeps longer. I didn’t do this with mine. I’m not concerned will how long it will keep. We eat raw butter like mad!

Now you can enjoy your fresh raw butter or you can wrap it and freeze it for later use. Pretty easy huh?

About that buttermilk… It’s not at all waste! Sure you can use it in recipes that call for buttermilk but you can also use it for anything that calls for plain ole milk. I tried it with this basic pancake recipe and they didn’t taste any different.

So there you have it, homemade butter making is easy and not really all that wasteful. Plus, it’s a great way to stock up on raw butter while not letting your precious raw milk go to waste.

 

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As I wrote about previously, before you can brew your own batch of kombucha you need a starter. You can either buy one somewhere online (which apparently isn’t as good since live bacterias are killed off in transport), get one from a friend/ company locally or simply grow your own.

Since a kombucha SCOBY is a raw live bacteria culture that can easily be contaminated with unknown mater I felt better being 100% responsible for the growth and sanitary conditions of mine rather than trusting the technique and working conditions of another person I didn’t know. What you decide to do will depend on your own comfort level of course.

I shared my own recipe, photos and experience growing my SCOBY here if you want to grow your own.

Before you start your brew be sure you have a large, unleaded wide mouthed jar to hold your brew. Also take time to sterilize your jar and materials so your brew and SCOBY aren’t compromised.

Once your slimy starter is done you can follow the steps below to begin brewing.

To Make 1/2 Gallon of Kombucha

1. In a large 1/2 gallon, non-leaded glass jar or container begin your brew with 8 cups of hot water and 4 tea bags. Brew your tea and let it cool to room temperature, preferably overnight. You can use green or black tea from what I’ve read. I used black tea for mine.
2. Sweeten your tea with 1 cup of sugar and mix till dissolved. I used Sugar in The Raw for mine since I had it on hand to use up but my recipe called for white sugar. Note, more natural sugars will work differently than white sugar. I believe my brew needed a bit more time since I didn’t use white sugar but it still worked out great.
3. Pour 1 cup of the reserve kombucha (that your SCOBY grew in) in your sweetened, brewed tea. Reserve your SCOBY’s leftover fluids though (and recover with a cloth), it will grow a backup SCOBY on top and will later be your SCOBY’s “hotel”.
4. Transfer your SCOBY from it’s growth jar to the sweetened, brewed tea jar. Place on top but know it is fine if the SCOBY sinks or floats. Mine was floating initially and then sank but then came back up.
5. Cover with a cloth, secure cloth and wait 5-7 days for it to brew. Taste test it from about day 5 on. If it is too sweet it needs to brew longer. It will go from sweet to vinegar like as it brews so frequent taste tests will allow you to end the initial brew when it suits you. Mine was ready at day 6 this round. Don’t let it get to vinegar like, you may not be able to stomach it. It should taste like the unflavored kombuch sold in stores but without the fizz. The fizz and carbonation happens in the next ferment.

Secondary Fermentation & Flavoring Your Kombucha

Your secondary fermentation happens once you bottle your Kombucha and add any flavorings to it. Here is how we did ours:

1. Sanitize about 6 swing-top/ flip-top bottles or you can use regular mason jars.
2. Move your SCOBY and about 1-2 cups of kombucha back to your kombucha “hotel”. A new SCOBY will likely have begun to form on top while your kombucha was brewing, this is great. Just reach in and grab your SCOBY even if it appears to have a thin milky film on top of it.
3. Once your SCOBY is out of the brewed kombucha it is time to add some flavoring. The easiest way is to add fruit purees to the kombucha. We added a kiwi, strawberry, banana puree this time. Add about 3/4 cup for your half gallon of kombucha and mix. Don’t be alarmed about foam and any bubbling reaction. Ours produced quite a bit of “head” on top of the kombuch once the puree was added, we just bottled it that way. We also didn’t opt for straining the fruit puree before adding, this did result in quite a bit of fruit pulp in our kombucha but we think the added fiber and nutrients are great. Strain if you prefer a less pulpy drink.
4. Next siphon or use a funnel to fill your jars with brew. My half gallon of kombucha ended up making 5 bottles of finished brew. Or fill your mason jars and cover them with their lids.
5. Allow the flavored, bottled brew to sit out on the counter for an additional 3 days for the secondary fermentation process. This is when the brew becomes carbonated.
6. Once your 3 days of secondary fermentation is up transfer the bottles to the fridge for a minimum 1/2 day so the carbonation settles a bit and your brew gets cold. Opening the bottle prematurely is reported to cause major kombucha sprayage much like a shaken soda does so you’ve been warned ;P
7. Lastly, enjoy your kombucha and start a new batch

We learned this the hard way with some older bottles of brew. I am still cleaning off the walls and ceiling!

Stay tuned for other fermented food adventures shared like saurkraut, kefir and cheese. You can subscribe to the blog updates at the very bottom of this page.

The post Brewing Homemade Kombucha: A DIY Healthful, Homesteading Adventure Shared appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I’ve seen commercials about S.A.D and the prescription pills that “I should ask my doctor about if I am experiencing similar symptoms”. I have always rolled my eyes about the idea of the winter season making people depressed enough to need a special prescription.

Well, N and I were chatting about how strangely productive we’re feeling as a result of the oddly warm and nice weather we are having and have been having all weekend. We might be coming out of our own winter depression or something! (by the way that is why I didn’t post all weekend, we were busy doing stuff outside…)

We got all our storm debris cut up and ready to be hauled away and we finished the 100% homemade rabbit hutch for Boner! We went grocery shopping, made yummy meals together for dinner, cleaned stuff, looked at rental home possibilities, toyed with the idea of trying to get approved for a mortgage, tried to have the brakes replaced and were outside in the fresh air. It was so nice.

I am super proud of N’s rabbit hutch project (I hope he’ll blog about it and share the plans). We are just waiting for the sealant to dry then it is ready for Boner to move in! Look how it turned out:

Oh, and we stopped in our local Circuit City just for fun to see what deals were to be had (N still wants a 42in flat screen LCD tv…). Have you been to their going out of business sale? We were just amazed at how many people were still looking for and actually buying those high ticket electronic items.

Actually all this weekend we saw people everywhere buying all this high priced non necessity stuff like big screen TV’s and other electronics despite the claimed economic hard times so many are experiencing. N and I just scratch our heads when we see it. We DIDN’T buy a tv by the way…

I mean these aren’t wealthy people, they appear to be mid to lower class and they are just lining up for a $2000 big screen tv or a new video game system. Um, hello! Save your money and think ahead about your economic future guys!

Oh and don’t even get me started on Nadya Suleman, the now mother of 14 who just had octuplets…

The post Coming out of the winter coma on a warm and sunny weekend… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I searched high and low for a good from scratch pot pie recipe and kept coming across the call for “crescent rolls” as the “pie crust”. To me from scratch is not buying premade crap and throwing it together guys. I mean what are people going to do if the store runs out of crescent rolls for any extended amount of time?

Anyway, I finally found a recipe I thought sounded good and boy was I right, it was great! I did modify it a bit because it was way to sticky and wet when made as directed. If you are interested here is the recipe.

Pie Crust Recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup lard
• 1/3 cup water

Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Add the butter or margarine and lard; mix with hands until crumb like texture is achieved. Mix in the water. Here, I came to the consensus that the dough was way to wet so I fixed it by adding in one tablespoon at a time of flour until it balled up in the mixer and looked like dough again. Then you pat it into a ball, and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Yesterday while the pie was a cooking we busted out the old school Nintendo that I got as a birthday present a few years back. I know it is ancient but I love it some much, common you know you do too! Oh, but I still do suck at it…

Other than Nintendo and pie crusts we are also worried about our first ice storm! Word is we are supposed to get a pretty bad one this whole week and we could be without power for a few days…Now what are you supposed to do to prepare for an ice storm? I have no freaking clue!

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