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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He was surprised when he took his first drink because of how different it tasted. Very much fermented with a hint of vinegar. He had me try it too, I wasn’t a fan but he managed to finish his entire bottle that day.

Kombucha is a probiotic rich, fermented tea beverage. It is considered a raw food that is beneficial because of all the probiotics and antioxidants that it contains. It’s great for digestive health and is also said to be a powerful detoxing beverage.

It contains lots of essential vitamins such as folic acid, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin B12. It also contains antioxidants including EGCG, Glucuronic Acid, Lactic Acid & Acetic Acid. Bacillus coagulans & S. Boulardii are the probiotic organisms it typically contains.

After discovering firsthand how beneficial kombucha can be I decided I wanted to try to making my own because frankly it’s expensive stuff. Plus, our household is no stranger to fermented or brewed beverages. Turns out making your own is quite easy too!

Here’s how to grow your own starter:

Kombucha starter is as easy as one bottle of organic raw kombucha that is unsweetened combined with 1 cup of room temperature sweetened tea (can be black tea or green tea). All you do is pour your bottle of kombucha into a glass jar, then you add your cup of sweetened tea.

Some notes:

• Be sure to sterilize the jar that you’ll use to make your kombucha starter in first!
• Cover your glass jar with a towel so it can breathe and so it stays contaminant free. I chose to rubber band a towel over the lid. Then place your jar in a warm place to grow.
• People in colder climates will need to wait longer than those in warmer climates for their starter to grow as the warmth of the liquid lends to the sugars being consumed and thus growing the starter.

Your kombucha starter, known as a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), a Mother, mushroom, etc. grows at the top of your liquid overtime.

In the beginning it looks like a thin-film but it slowly thickens as your jar of liquid sits. Once it is about a quarter of an inch thick you can get started making your own homemade kombucha.

You can find the subsequent Kombucha recipe here.

The post Kombucha: Digestions Friend & How You Can Grow Your Own Kombucha Starter. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Being the baker that I am I suggest that we just make them, “they can’t be THAT hard” I said. So N gave them a whirl and ran in to some major egg white consistency issues. The whole beat until soft peaks form part was just not happening for him so he added more sugar, then more flour and also a touch of baking soda…

Well the mixture did not seem to look like what was described and we knew it was super messed up but just for fun we saw it through. Instead of piping lady fingers he just spread the mixture on to a baking sheet and popped it in to see how it would turn out.

The consensus was that the concoction didn’t taste like ladyfingers, though the spongy texture was close… Recipe failed, okay we knew that.

After looking over his recipe (from an old antique cook book) I was amazed at how vague and nondescript the directions were. Plus there wasn’t a real “stabilizer” ingredient in the recipe so how would the eggs do what they were supposed to?

After doing some research I offered to make his lady fingers for him on Friday. He promised not to be butt hurt about it and said it would help so I did it using this recipe and I think they turned out good (N will have to be the true judge to this though).

Here is what I learned:

1. Egg temperature is important! In the recipe N used and also in this one and this one there is no mention of egg temperature unlike the recipe I used. Apparently egg temperature is important and using eggs straight from the refrigerator is not helpful in achieving the desired consistency. I think this was one of the reasons why his egg whites never got stiff.
2. Egg temperature can be achieved quickly. Just soak your eggs in some warm water for several minutes and they’ll warm up. You don’t have to leave them on the counter to come to temperature all day, yay and duh.
3. Warm eggs are harder to separate. When I make lady fingers again I’ll be separating the yolk from the whites before allowing them to get to room temperature. Separating them warm is way harder and messier!
4. Don’t over mix when it says fold in. The foamy egg whites are fluffy and full of air. When you combine them with the yolk/ flour mixture it says fold in for a reason. Keeping the airy texture is important to keeping the ladyfingers spongy. Don’t over mix it.
5. When thorough detailed instructions are provided it is best to follow them exactly. I know duh right? Seriously though, just because you are combining ingredients doesn’t mean you can use your mixer etc. I (and many others) have the tendency to get ahead with recipes and overlook key bits of information. With lady fingers this is not good.

Here is how the process unfolded in my kitchen in photos:

The post Making ladyfingers from scratch appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I personally like creative homemade, do-it-yourself gifts because they are more from the heart than store bought ones. Plus I have a blast making gifts for people cause I am crafty like that.

Now since so many are flocking here in search of homemade holiday gift ideas and craft projects I wanted to take a second to suggest some easy gift ideas for you to try this holiday season. If you want to check out the instructions just click on the linked text! you have a project you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us.

1. Turn scrap fabric in to braided usefulness by making your very own braided rag rug. These are super easy, have tons of character and can be used almost anywhere in the house.
2. Make a sentimental gift and clear out some closet space by taking all those stored clothing items you can’t bear to throw away and turning them in to a functional throw or quilt. Anyone can make their own t-shirt quilt quickly and easily just in time for holiday gift giving. Use baby clothes, shirts or just about any special piece of fabric and turn those memories in to a great gift for someone special.
3. Have an environmental lover on your gift list? You can make several fun earth friendly gift items (like a biodegradable bird feeder or a shoe scraper) that they will enjoy and they’ll love that you took and interest in being earth friendly too.
4. Have some small trinkets to give? Why not make your own paper gift box using origami? It is super easy, it is fun for kids and you can decorate them exactly the way you want them. You can even make them hang from the Christmas tree.
5. Got a cell phone fanatic on your gift list? You can make them a cute cellphone cozy out of fabric or yarn to keep their phone protected and also in style this holiday season. Theses are also insanely easy to make and can be oh, so unique and personalized.
6. Know someone who is in need of some new bedding this holiday season? Put your sewing skills to work and make them a homemade duvet cover or comforter. Don’t worry even a beginning sewer (me) can do this and it is pretty fun too!

Now I know you have a project you are just dieing to share with us. If you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us. If you don’t have a link to share but want to just tell us about your project just use the comment field below to do so.

The post Homemade holiday gifts are IN, what are you making? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

After checking out the Garland Prarie Soaps page I got really excited about the occation soaps idea. N and I have been brainstorming fun wedding favor ideas and homemade soaps are a really good idea! With our forest wedding theme we wanted to encorporate the scents and textures of the forest in to the wedding reception. Giving individually wrapped homemade soaps to our guests is a very cute idea. Fun!

Thanks Maiden53 for the bar of soap tell Nicole it is beautiful and I can’t wait to use it! I am also loving the textures and colors of it, I know that can’t be easy to do.

If you want a chance to win a free bar of Garlan Prarie Soap head on over to Nicole‘s blog for her friday soap giveaway.

The post Lookie what I got… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.