The Farm..Cooking, Gardening & Much More

[barefootgardener]

Shetland Sheep.. we will be shearing them for the wool in a few weeks.

[KarenO]

Beauties!. What do you do with the wool? Do you keep it and make yarn or is there a market for it. Very interesting. If you make things from yarn from your own sheep that is awesome and I would love to see.
KarenO

[barefootgardener]

It was cold a while back, so it was a perfect day to make my version of a Mackerel Fish Chowder with Oat Dumplings.. It was good and hit the spot!

Ginny

[imp]

Oh, that looks so good! Do you have a recipe? I've never heard of nor had oat dumplings, so am very interested in how they are made and taste.

You take stunning pictures, too, from butterflies to livestock to food!

[barefootgardener]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Beauties!. What do you do with the wool? Do you keep it and make yarn or is there a market for it. Very interesting. If you make things from yarn from your own sheep that is awesome and I would love to see.

KarenO

Karen, I will be trying my hand at hand spinning the wool for the very first time. It is a new adventure for me. So it will be a learning experience.. After shearing I will need to separate, sort, clean (wash) the fleece, dry it, tease it and card it. I like the natural color of the fibers, so, I will not dye it. I have watched a friend do this a few years back, and have some friendly folk at a farm who teach classes on all the steps that lead up to spinning the wool into fiber/yarn.. I have been wanting to give this a try for years. I am so excited. I will try to take some pictures of the process as I go along..

Ginny

[barefootgardener]

Originally Posted by imp

Oh, that looks so good! Do you have a recipe? I've never heard of nor had oat dumplings, so am very interested in how they are made and taste.

You take stunning pictures, too, from butterflies to livestock to food!

Thank you Imp, some of the pictures were a bit large, but, too lazy to resize..

I made the oat dumplings from oats I ground up myself and turned into flour.I just used a basic recipe for dumplings.. If I remember correctly:

1 cup oat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon soft butter
1/2 cup lukewarm milk

Melt butter and add to the milk, set aside.

In medium bowl, sift dry ingredients together then add milk and butter mixture. Stir till coated well, let sit 10 minutes. Drop by small spoon full onto boiling broth.. ( I use a small melon baller). Cook covered 15 minutes and uncovered for 5 minutes.

You can add chopped chives or parsley to the dough if you want.

Ginny

[barefootgardener]

I grew a few rows of Black Aztec Corn in my 2015 garden. I planted a few weeks late, so, I did not end up with very many ripe ears.. Oh well, it is a beautiful and tasty corn though.

[barefootgardener]

Some seedlings I started from seed a few weeks back. Tomatoes, lettuce, kale, onion, herbs etc..

[efisakov]

Beautiful pictures, Ginny. Love your farm animals, or should I say pets. Everything looks great. Wish you productive and healthy season, girl. Hope we will have an early spring and no more snow (even though they are predicting some this Monday).

[barefootgardener]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Beautiful pictures, Ginny. Love your farm animals, or should I say pets. Everything looks great. Wish you productive and healthy season, girl. Hope we will have an early spring and no more snow (even though they are predicting some this Monday).

Thank you Ella,

We had some warm temperatures last week and most of the snow was gone except for a small scattering in the woods. Yesterday the temperatures dropped and we had some snow and sleet, and more snow is spurting out this morning.

I have been up at the barn since early this morning. One of our sheep mama's had twin lambs. They are so cute. They are all doing well. Will post some pictures soon.

I hope you have a great garden season also. It wont be long before we can plant, so. hang in there my friend. Last week my husband and I saw a couple honey bees, and the sandhill cranes are back. That is about a month sooner than usual.. Signs of an early spring.

We tapped a few maple trees out in the sugar bush last weekend when the temperature went up and cooked it down until we had a pint of sweet maple syrup. We plan on tapping more trees this weekend. We have just been so busy.. In a good way!

Ginny

[barefootgardener]

Hanging up garlic and tomatoes to dry. 2015

[barefootgardener]

West African Pepper growing in a container.

[barefootgardener]

Here are some flowers that I started from seed that I got at WM for 20 cents a pack each.. Tall Alyssum in the front spilling over and Marigolds and Zinnias in middle and back of container. They sure gave a great pop of color, and they bloomed all summer into late fall. 2015

Ginny

[Gerardo]

beautiful pics. That chowder is mouthwatering.

[Worth1]

Love it all.
Worth