Friday, April 10, 2009

poke salad

Yummy Goodness!
Young tender poke salad plant:


It's poke salad time of the year. Yes I do eat poke salad, about 3 messes(as my mother in law would say), each spring. I only pick the small tender leaves, about 1/2 of a brown grocery sack full. I wash them and boil them,about 15 mins. Then I drain the liquid and cover with water again and boil one more time and drain again. I put 1/4 cup olive oil in a skillet, add 1 medium onion , diced and cook until translucent. I add the drained poke salad greens and season with salt and pepper and cook for about 15 minutes over medium high heat. I whisk 4 eggs(farm fresh of course) in a bowl, push the greens to one side of skillet, drop a couple tbls. of butter on open side and scramble eggs until almost done, them mix it altogether and cook for about 5 more minutes. Enjoy! They say poke salad is poisonous, so eat at your own risk. My mother in law said you had to boil it 3 times to get the poison out, I only boil twice and never have a problem(but I only pick the very small tender leaves). She also said never eat it after it starts to make poke berries.

Friday, March 13, 2009

angora goats

Sasha and Missy
Missy and Sasha
I went to North Carolina this past Sunday to pick up 3 angora does. Missy and Sasha are 2 small yearlings. I also purchased a 3 year old doe(whom I named Maddyson, Maddy for short) for breeding with my nigerian dwarf buck. I will get a pic of Maddy up soon. They are 3 sweet girls.


Saturday, March 7, 2009

our first snow this year

Our first snow this year was this past Sunday, It hung around for a couple of days.

Today it will be in the 70's. I will finish the new fence I started putting up before our beautiful snow fall. Got to get it done today, because I'm getting 3 angora goats tomorrow.
Last night I tried to get a picture of a rooster going to roost at sunset, I didn't get much of the sunset but I got a nice silhouette of the rooster in the tree:


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

the rustic rooster farm

Farm living is the life for me! I love being outdoors. I love gathering fresh eggs. I love fresh vegetables that I grow organic. I love being able to open a jar of canned garden goodies and know where they came from, how they were grown, and knowing that it reduces my carbon foot print on the earth.

Friday, February 20, 2009

wool preparation


I love every thing about fiber. I love the animals. I especially love preparing the wool for spinning. This is a picture of merino and angora rolags(behind bowl of angora fiber), the merino(on the right) was dyed with natural plant dye from the farm. I blended the merino with the angora(natural fawn)on my hand cards(cotton hand cards). I spun a 2 ply yarn with it. It is so soft. I will take a picture of it to post.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

vegan

You might wonder why I have a vegan blog on my blog list, since I obviously raise chickens and dairy goats.
I am a vegatarian, I am not a vegan. I added a link to a vegan site because my daughter is trying to be vegan. I eat eggs and dairy, but I also like to try vegan recipes(alot of them are great vegatarian recipes).

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

angora goats

I will be adding 3 angora goats to my farm soon. I am getting 2 small does that I will keep for their fiber, they are too small to breed. I am also getting 1 doe that is hopefully bred. I will also breed her to my nigerian dwarf buck goat in the future. I will drive up to North Carolina to get my angoras the end of this month. I couldn't find any in South Carolina. My daughter and grandaughter will go with me, they love the North Carolina mountains.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

nigerian dwarf goat

This is Mocha, my blue eyed Nigerian dwarf goat. She was bottle fed and is a real sweetheart. She has 4 daughters. I am keeping all of my girls. I hope to get an angora goat(buck) this spring to breed with all the girls to produce fiber goats that will still produce good goat milk.