Healthy Family Farm Visit

EUREKA! I have found it! My Aunt Dorothy (the one who taught me to Jam) & her daughter Kristina turned me on to this place out in Santa Paula where you can go spend the day....so I started researching to find out more about it.... no website (yet!) no blog (yet) no nothing, except an email addy: healthyfamilyfarms (@) gmail (dot) com. So email I did! And guess what? All that stuff is coming, along with cheese making classes, pick your own produce & all kinds of other fun stuff! She's just gettin' started! Watch out, Ventura County! We got FARM.

Sharon raises milk goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks, pigs, Scottish Highland Beef that look a bit prehistoric & an 'accidental' litter of puppies that will be groomed into guard dogs roaming the acreage protecting the cattle from predators like mountain lions.

You can email the farm for a price list & a membership form. She has a pretty extensive list of products, including Goat Yogurt & Ice Cream. Because it's tricky to sell raw milk & some of the other items, they way it works is you basically pay an annual fee to be a member (a sort-of partial share holder) and this enables you to get a share of her products. But enough about the legal stuff! You can get farm fresh, pastured chicken & duck eggs! Fresh chicken's for roasting, necks & feet for Stock! Fresh Milk-only-Fed Pork! We bought a Ham, and did a giant family feast last night - the Ham was WONDERFUL! We did a Leg of Lamb too! We all bought fresh whole chickens & have loved a chicken dinner, leftovers & making stock - and with this crazy June-Gloom we've been having, it's perfect timing for all that!

Joe & I in front of Barn My folks

Sharon (Adult on right)

Sharon has the farm open on Sundays from 10-4 so members can come pick up what they need, fresh on a weekly basis - she doesn't sell any of the meat frozen! On Sundays, her kids & a few other Staffers are there to give you tours & talk about the farm & how they do things...

Sea J comes up from Malibu to spend weekends on the farm. She came on our tour with us photographing & video documenting all our antics (with 4 little kids, we had plenty!) She's working on the website & also documenting the progress of a passle of 'rescue chickens' Sharon got from a local 'organic' farm. When they arrived at HHF, they couldn't even walk because they'd been raised in such confined spaces! (If this doesn't convince you that just 'organic' isn't good enough, I dunno what will!) Now most can walk around the 3000 Sq. Foot Chicken Run & are looking much better, although their feathers are still pretty mangey! Poor creatures! She has all the feed made especially to her specifications, meaning not only organic, but NO SOY! Wonderful!

You are looking at one Happy Camper, er farmer, er wanna-be Farmer, er Farm enjoyer!

Meal Plan, Schmeal Schplan!

Ok, so if anyone actually cares, this week's attempt at a 'meal plan' was a pretty dismal failure!

Here's how my week actually played out:

Monday:  Pork Chops (pan fried w/some sort of reduction sauce), Salad  & Couscous with Pine nuts & Goat Cheese

Prep: Make Yogurt (crockpot), store dried sprouted grains, make Ginger Pear Marmalade, make bread

Monday was perfect, I added Roasted Scorn Quash to the meal AND still did everything else I set out to do!  Yay!  We're off to a good start...;)

Tuesday (Book Club at 7:30): Leftover Sweet & Sour Cabbage Soup with homemade bread/butter & roasted Acorn Squash

Ummm, let's eat out tonight....We used to eat out every Tuesday because it ensured that we made it to Book Club.  It used to be: Joe picks up Kanan, they come get me, we mosey on down that same freeway, try a new place each week & then make it to book club on time & without all the 'wasted time & gas' of going home first (home is pretty far out of the way).  Then I instituted a 'No Meals Out" for the month of January & we somehow made 'going home' first just work.  We'd go home, I'd make a simple meal, we'd still go to Book Club.  (Imagine that!)

But since we are in February & we are allowed to eat out this month, it sure was easy to just fall back into our old routine!  And, while we did order only water to drink, split an entree, K ate off the kids menu, and dinner for us all with tip was $30... not too bad...  but I still felt over full & wasteful...(hmmm....maybe I'm changing, after all?...)

Wednesday: Not home/eat out - Garden Co-Op Meeting with Tami & Terri - location TBA

Prep: Make Potato/Turnip Mash

Ok, so Joe's brother was in town for tonight only, so I got home, did dishes, started laundry, heated up the Cabbage Soup for myself...had a nice early evening alone, then went to my first ever Garden Co-op Meeting with Tami & Terri (my partners in crime, er "partners in dirt"!) LOL  We met at Starbucks & closed the place down!  So much to talk about & decide!!   Joe had dinner out with his brother at our fav little Mexican Hole-in-de-wall, Los Toros.  I was jealous so he brought home chips & their famous bean dip for me, awww!  So sweet!  I munched a bit before bed, and divvied up the rest for lunches.  That soup sure didn't stay with me!

Thursday: Shepard's Pie (from Sunday's leftover Chicken stew topped w/Mash & Salad

Prep: Thaw Ground Turkey & beans for Chili, move Kombucha bottles to fridge

Well, it was a really exceptionally rough day at work, so I really NEEDED to just go to bed straight away!  I did manage to heat up the rest of the Cabbage soup & serve a big bowl each with homemade toast, then we sat in front of the tube & vegged out all night!

Friday: Crockpot chili & cornbread

Hah!  I'm sure by now you've realized (IF you are not falling off your chair with sleepy boredom) that I never defrosted the meat!  I did, however quickly make the mashed potatoes & do the Shepherd's Pie.  Whilst that was cooking, I ground some Soft White Wheat berries & soaked them (in the hopes of making muffins or waffles on Sunday).  Dinner was yummy, even though it was a bit strange to have both pasta & barley, not to mention chicken! in a "Shepherd's Pie"! Talk about untraditional!  I did taste my Kombucha, but feel it need s bit more time, so I did not bottle yet, will do it Sunday. No salad with dinner!  We watched movie & went to bed early.

Saturday: Roast Chicken & root veggies & salad

Prep: Make stock

OK, well I do consider today a pretty productive day.  I started crockpot yogurt again, baked bread, made White Turkey Chili with Kale (based on this recipe), which we ate for dinner.  We made all our errands in one 2 hour trip!  Awesome what having deadlines can do!  In 2 hours, we did Lowes to buy chicken wire, landscaping paper, a couple plants & seedling trays; the Nursery to buy Organic dirt & inquire about large deliveries of dirt; the Soil place next to the Nursery to compare their prices (better!); Trader Joe's - I had 3 things on my list: onions, yogurt & cereal.  I walked out in less than 5 minutes with: onions, yogurt, 2 boxes of cereal & 2 packages of rice stick noodles.  NOT BAD!  (hmmm... maybe I'm changing, after all?....)

At 1pm we picked up our CSA Box & headed home.  I started the bread, added to the chili that was already started, pitched the yogurt, put bread in oven while Tami & Terri visited.  We all went outside & planned/talked some more while Joe worked on the Garden boxes.  After they left, I took bread out of the oven to cool, went thru my CSA box, finished up dinner, started my first tray of seedlings, & when we finally lost our light, we came in & ate.  Finally!  (never did have lunch - too busy!)  Now I'm posting this & then to bed for another big day Sunday!

Kanan & Austin showing alternate uses for the Garden Box they built for me last weekend....

Sunday: Recycle chicken into Tortilla Soup or tacos...? 

Well, since I never roasted the chicken, I can't very well do anything with the leftovers, can I?

I'm dragging my poor Joey to a Homestead Workshop this afternoon, so I imagine that I'll make muffins or waffles for breakie & then eat out for lunch or dinner, prolly not both...(what!?   one can hope!) ;)

Ok, well, I'm NO quitter!  ... so I think I'll keep trying.  I also think I am better under a bit of pressure, so I plan to make March a No Eating Out month again (with the exception of Kanan's birthday weekend, of course!).

A day to brag about!

Well, I had originally taken today off to hang with my boys since they were already off for MLK Jr Day... but Joe got a call to go help a buddy with a house project, and Kanan opted to go with so he could play with Rambo (our friend's baby chihuahua).  So I ended up with a bonus Kitchen day!! Wahoo!

So after brunch (I had thawed a batch of Kelly's Cinnamon rolls & baked them up - they were great hot out of the oven, but both the boys were like "where's the icing??" so I made a quick small batch made with butter, powdered sugar & maple syrup- I wasn't sure the maple & butter alone would do it..), the boys left me all alone....

Yogurt:

I started by finally tackling Yogurt - I've been a bit scared to try it, but I found an easy crock-pot recipe that I felt I could handle... It's incubating (is that the right term??? Eww!) right now! Can't wait!  I'll probably leave half plain & sweeten the rest with Maple Syrup - Trader Joe's has their own brand of Granola, one of the flavors has crystallized ginger in it - I'm seriously in love!! Anyone have any idea how to duplicate that??  Anyhoo, I love to add a scoop to my oatmeal or yogurt, or sometimes I combine all three!  I take oatmeal packets to work currently, but one day I hope to figure out how to make my own & make it easily portable...

Kombucha:

I've had a Kombucha SCOBY for months in my fridge for a few months (I ambitiously bought one when I found Kefir Grains on eBay from the nicest man who goes by the alias of 'Bacteria Pimp' - cute eh?)   Anyhoo, I started making Kefir as soon as my package arrived & my grains seem healthy despite my many attempt to kill them lol...I just didn't ever get around to researching the art of Kombucha & have the time (or so I thought!)  So today I decide that was IT - no more excuses - just DO it!!   It was easy.  I ended up following the recipe in NT, I had some lovely Organic Pastures "Living Tea" - which is my favorite store bought...so I hope mine will come out like theirs!  One thing I am not sure of:  I did not have any organic tea.  And I didn't have access to a car to run to the store... so I used what I had & just hope it's ok... next time!

Dairy:

I had some Raw Cream on hand that was starting to go, so I started a bowl of Sour Cream!  We love this & use it as regularly as I can keep it stocked!  I was inspired by Ann Marie to try the Kefir again.  I don't know where I got this, but I've been using my soured milk to make Kefir... does that make sense to anyone?  I honestly cannot remember if someone told me to, or if I just decided it was a logical thing because you let the milk sit out & 'sour' to an extent anyway...???  Anyone?  One that subject, does anyone have any uses for sour milk?  

Grains:

On Friday night I had started a bunch of grains to soak, so today they were sprouted enough to start drying.  Thankfully, my oven is gas & goes as low as 100 degrees, so it's not hard to let my grains dry overnight or all day while I'm at work.  I tried the 100% Sprouted Wheat Bread recipe from Marilyn Moll last week & we loved it!  It's my favorite so far.  I made a double batch (in the Kitchen Aid, as it was WAY too full for the bread machine) because Joe's boss has offered t buy it from me she liked it a lot!   I added sesame & sunflower seeds for some extra texture & appeal.... it looks gorgeous & tastes pretty good...I think I'll try a bit more next time, but I think I also need to up the liquid a tiny bit...

I also soaked a cup of Almonds on Sat morning, so today I threw them into the VitaMix to make Almond Milk.  I always try to use the left over pulp in a soaked grain muffin recipe, so I have that (about 1 cup) with about 2 cups mixed whole grains soaking to make muffins tomorrow evening....or maybe Wed morning (although it's awfully ambitious of me to think I'll get up early & make them!  But I bought some fresh berries, so it sure would be nice to use them in a muffin.  We'll see...

Meat:

Saturday morning I went for Raw Milk again, as I was short on Milk.  I bought enough this time to (hopefully!) last a month.  I also ran to Costco to stock up of stupid things I like best there like TP & Cat litter...I ran a bunch of other errands & made bread.  On Saturday night I had roasted a chicken.  (Thanks for the inspiration, Erica!  I bought the Coleman's organic ones at Costco for about $12 each!  I'm going to shoot for 1 every other week!) On Saturday we'd eaten an extremely gourmet bowl of cereal early on, so when the chicken was done, we just wanted a snack, so I cut up one of the breast & we just nibbled on that - it was SO yum!  I roasted it breast side down so the white meat would be super moist!

So then the rest went right into the fridge & today I stripped all the meat off & started stock.  It was even easier than usual because I'd been keeping a freezer bag of veg scraps for the last couple weeks...I can't wait to see how this batch turns out!  There were mushrooms, bell peppers, leeks, onion, broccoli bottoms, you name it, it was in there!  It's been smelling so good all day!  Ok, so with the meat I stripped off, I chunked all the dark meat & made Creamy Chicken Enchiladas with them for tonight's dinner.  The remaining breast got cubed & I made a small bowl of Chicken Salad for sandwiches this week.  I added mayo, mustard, cayenne, craisins, chopped celery & chopped pecans - YUM!  I would have added apples too, but I don't have any at the moment...

Freezer Meals:

I ran across a nice easy recipe here for Egg Cups, so I made those, wrapped up 3 for the fridge & the rest are freezing as I type for future To-Go Breakfasts... Yum!

Meal Plan

I keep reading every one's Meal Plans & it seriously seems like such a good idea!  I just haven't felt 'ready' to begin.  Yet.  I think I'm almost there...I have a partial list, but I'm really having some challenges because I already know that we will be out of the house Tues & Thurs nights for Book Clubs at friend's houses.  So I'm trying to think of quick dinners for those nights (don't forget that we've taken on the oh-so-important challenge of "No Eating Out" this month, and normally that would be my solution...  I'm working on it, but I think I'll see how it goes before attempting to join the official "Meal Plan Monday"... 

Well, the boys got home at 6-ish, we had dinner & now I'm all caught up!  Must go strain my stock, now - g'night!