soapmaking

I made a batch of goat’s milk soap yesterday. It wasn’t rocket science, but the chemical reaction produced by the lye and the milk was kind of scary. Lye can burn the skin and do much worse than that in the eyes. It goes without saying that swallowing it would be a really, really bad idea. Anyway, when I mixed the lye with the goats milk it produced a boiling, bubbling reaction that filled the pot with orange foam. There are many recipes available in books and on the internet. The one I used was from the Storey’s Dairy Goat book. Besides the basics of fat, lye, and liquid, I added oatmeal and lavender essential oils. I used pig lard for the fat and goats milk for the liquid. There are number of options for the fat, lard being the most obvious. Goose fat tallow sounded like an intriguing possibility.

I canned a large batch of applesauce too. We like to use applesauce for moisture in bread recipes. The applesauce turned out wonderfully. Naturally sweet with no added sugar.

We are contemplating selling the soap at the local food co-op and farmers market. We are also going through the process to get a permit to sell raw goats milk. We are really hoping to make a few extra dollars this way.

And, of course, a happy new year to all. It has been an amazing year for us. Ups and downs to be sure, but so many blessings. A helicopter ride to the children’s hospital for breathing problems for our newborn son and several other trips to the emergency room for stitches for the other boys. I think we are going to have to learn to stitch them up ourselves. How hard could it be?

Among the many blessings: My beautiful son was born in our kitchen in an amazing home birth; Jenny and I were married and she moved out to the farm with the boys; the animals are all healthy and productive; the pigs were successfully raised and turned into pounds and pounds of delicious bacon and chops.

There have been many, many opportunities to learn. We’ve learned about how difficult it is to make any money on a small farm. We’ve learned to live on an almost non-existent income, We’ve learned to count our blessings.

We are so truly blessed. We wish all the very best for you in this new year.

Sauerkraut

I canned the sauerkraut last night. It spent about three weeks in the crock fermenting. It is amazing. In the last three years I've only had one successful batch of sauerkraut. This is my best kraut ever. It's crispy and tangy. I had sausage and sauerkraut for dinner. What have you canned this year that has gone particularly well?

Pickled sprouts

Up close and personal with some pickled Brussels sprouts. Yum! I've never pickled sprouts before. I think they will be good. They certainly look good. As much as I have grumbled about my garden this year, I have been blessed in the brassica department. Lots of cabbage, broccoli, and sprouts.

Applesauce and other random topics

Goose season is over here, but here as a fantastic picture of Colleen all bundled up for hunting in the pasture. The flyway doesn't go right across our land and I think I may search for neighbors willing to let us try their land next year. We'll see.



I was sick yesterday and spent most of the day curled up with the cats. This is Maggie, the princess of the house. She curled up beneath a cowboy hat. I had planned on starting on barn projects, but physical labor was out of the question. We need to shovel out a bunch of very old manure from the place where the pigs are going to go. We also need to fork out about five tons of moldy old hay from the center of the barn. There are owl pellets, cow pies, and who knows what all in this deep layer of hay. I think we are going to hire some local unemployed friends and acquaintances to help. Pay a reasonable wage in cash, plus a farm lunch. Bake up a ham and what all. One problem is that there is no easy access to the area below the loft where the hay is piled. We'll have to fork it on to tarps, drag it through a side door, and then on to the loader on the tractor. Hard, dirty, sweaty work. Then I need to put up some windows and doors and patch some holes in the sides of the barn. Lots to do before we get goats in spring.

We are starting to get people interested in pre-ordering half and whole hogs this year. Orders for eggs are higher than we can supply. We've had people ask about large orders of meat chickens, but we have to figure out how to do that legally. We will be ordering seeds on Wednesday. Things are coming along.


And finally, applesauce. We canned a batch of apple sauce from the tail end of our fall apples from the orchard. It turned out splendidly. We still have enough for another batch of apple sauce or apple butter. Canning is so satisfying an activity. We still have a bunch of frozen tomatoes that we couldn't get canned in the fall. We need to make them into tomato sauce.

We went puppy supply shopping last night. The puppy comes home on Saturday. We can't wait. It should be an interesting event introducing her to the cats.

Sick or not, I plan on teaching today.