Our Animals

Here are some pictures of our animals that live at the Small Farm:

Rainie, our African Goose

Our Bantams:

Our pair of Lavender Orpingtons:

One of our five Buff Orpington chicks:

Our Muscovy Duck, Lilly:

Our goat, Molly:

Our Border Collie, Chase:

In-Garden Earthworm Composter

We had some table scraps that needed to be taken out. We normally just dump them at the edge of the woods but these had chicken bones in them and our dog chase doesn't need to get a hold of them.Also, I wanted to move the earthworm bin out of the house. I started an earthworm composting "bin" late last year using some worms I found in my compost pile and some red wigglers left over from fishing. I had them in a Styrofoam cooler under one of the cabinets in the kitchen. They have produced like crazy so there is a ton of them in there from tiny, tiny little worms to the large adults. Anyway, here is what I did:

1. Drill holes all the way around the bucket starting from the bottom

Drilled holes all the way around the bucket

2. Bury the bucket in the garden. Since our yard slopes, I buried this bucket toward the higher side.

The bucket buried in the garden

3. Add the worms and place the lid on tight.

The idea behind this is that as the worms eat the scrapes, the waste that they make will seep out of the holes and into the garden soil. Worm waste is great fertilizer! I want to do the same in my other raised bed but I have to deal with the fire ants first (found out today that there is a fire ant bed in there).

Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa

I love the salsa served in Mexican restaurants! It's perfect and is nothing like the junk you buy from the store. I've tried to mimic this before using rotel but it never tasted the same. The recipe below is a modified version of one that I found on-line. Most recipes use rotel and/or a pickled jalapenos. It just so happens that I have some fresh ones in the fridge (my jalapeno plants don't have any ready for me yet).

• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 or 2 fresh jalapenos
• 3 table spoon cilantro
• 1/2 Lime
• 2 cloves garlic
• Salt and Pepper

Drain about half the juice from the can of tomatoes and set juice aside. Rough-Cut the Jalapenos in either "wheels" or chunks. The point here is to get them in smaller pieces. In a blender, add the tomatoes, about 1/2 of the jalapenos, cilantro, and the garlic cloves. Squeeze the lime juice into the blender as well. Lid the blender and pulse until all of the ingredients are blended. You don't want it to be a liquid but more like a puree. Taste the mixture. If it's not spicy enough, add the remaining jalapenos and pulse again. Add the salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is not "juicy" enough, add the juice that you saved from step one. Hopefully you've had the salsa from a restaurant and can compare the consistency. Enjoy!

Homemade French Onion Dip

I'll start by saying that I did not come up with this recipe, I found it on-line and modified it. You can make it low-fat or fat-free depending on the ingredients. Luckily, I had everything I needed on-hand.

• 2 Large Yellow Onions (about 1 1/2 - 2 cups) minced
• 2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 Cup Sour Cream (could do low-fat or fat-free here)
• 1/2 Cup Mayo (I used a low-fat Dukes Mayo with olive oil)
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet on Medium/High, back down the heat to medium and saute' the onions for about 15-20 minutes. I turned the heat down to medium/low about 10 minutes into the cooking process. Place the onions in a small container and set in the fridge or freezer until cool. 

Mix the Sour Cream, Mayo and garlic powder in a mixing bowl. Add the cooled onions and stir until the onions are distributed throughout the mixture. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Chill if desired. Enjoy!

Simple Cucumber Trellis

With the Cucumber vines starting to take over the garden, we wanted a way to keep the vines easily managed. Since we had some extra 5/4" x 6" x 8' boards (treated) we decided to put together a simple trellis. The boards are attached to the raised bed frame using 2 1/4" screws (about 5). There is no support beams at this time since I want to conserve as many of these boards as I can. We then ran 2" chicken wire from one board to the other. The wire is held in place by some 1"x2"x?' hard wood slates that we picked up for free. Since this stuff is very hard, we had to pre-drill pilot holes. The slates are connected to the boards using 1" or so screws. Now we just have to train the vines to climb it. Ideally, we should be able to walk under the trellis and pick cucumbers. We'll see what happens.